How Bangladesh’s ‘Gen Z’ protests brought down PM Sheikh Hasina
This Al Jazeera article chronicles the student-led protests in Bangladesh that ultimately toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year government in August 2024. The unrest began in June 2024 when the High Court reinstated a quota system reserving one-third of government jobs for descendants of 1971 Liberation War veterans, sparking demonstrations led by university students demanding a merit-based hiring system. The protests escalated dramatically after the government responded with violent crackdowns, internet shutdowns, and a nationwide curfew, resulting in at least 300 deaths and thousands of arrests over several weeks. Despite the Supreme Court scaling back the quota to just 5% on July 21, protesters shifted their demands to call for Hasina's resignation due to the brutal suppression of demonstrations. On August 5, 2024, following a particularly deadly crackdown on August 4th that killed nearly 100 people, Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled Bangladesh by military helicopter, reportedly to India, marking the end of her government amid widespread public outrage.
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Al Jazeera. "How Bangladesh’s ‘Gen Z’ protests brought down PM Sheikh Hasina." Al Jazeera, 2024. July Archive. https://julyarchive.org/sources/how-bangladesh-s-gen-z-protests-brought-down-pm-sheikh-hasin-b8b6eebf.
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