36 July: Uprising in Bangladesh | Ep. 1 – I Am Razakar | Al Jazeera Investigates

This is the transcript of Episode 1 ("I Am Razakar") of Al Jazeera's investigative podcast series 36 July: Uprising in Bangladesh, which chronicles the 2024 popular uprising that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League government on August 5, 2024. The episode covers three main topics: 1. The fall of Sheikh Hasina — Journalists and activists walk through the ransacked ruins of Gonobhaban (the prime minister's official residence in Dhaka), examining how Hasina's increasingly authoritarian rule collapsed after weeks of protests, including exclusive intercepted phone calls in which she personally ordered lethal force against demonstrators. 2. The quota system controversy — The episode explains how student protests began over a government job quota system reserving 56% of positions for descendants of 1971 independence war freedom fighters, which students viewed as a mechanism for rewarding ruling party loyalists rather than merit. 3. The "Razakar" turning point — The episode details how Hasina's July 14, 2024 press conference — in which she insulted protesters by calling them "razakars" (a deeply offensive term for Pakistani collaborators during the 1971 war) — dramatically backfired, galvanizing mass student protests across the country, including violent crackdowns by the Awami League's student wing, Chhatra League.

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