Bangladesh’s pro-democracy icon who became an autocrat

Bangladesh’s longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed started her political profession as a pro-democracy icon, however fled mass protests towards her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in energy.

Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, the place she flew after being deposed by the student-led rebellion which spiralled into nationwide unrest.

On 17 November, a particular tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to dying after convicting her of crimes towards humanity. It was discovered Hasina had ordered a lethal crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all costs towards her.

As much as 1,400 folks have been killed in the course of the weeks of protests main as much as her ousting, most by gunfire from safety forces, UN human rights investigators mentioned. Their report discovered that she and her authorities had tried to cling to energy utilizing systematic, lethal violence towards protesters.

It was the worst bloodshed the nation had seen since independence in 1971.

The protests introduced an sudden finish to the reign of Hasina, who had dominated Bangladesh for greater than 20 years.

She and her Awami League occasion have been credited with overseeing the South Asian nation’s financial progress. However in recent times she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.

Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and different abuses all rose beneath her rule.

In January 2024, Hasina gained an unprecedented fourth time period as prime minister in an election broadly decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the principle opposition.

Protests started later that 12 months with a requirement to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer season that they had morphed right into a wider anti-government motion as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.

Amid rising requires her to resign, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. She additionally threw tons of of individuals into jail and introduced prison costs towards tons of extra.

A leaked audio clip steered she had ordered safety forces to “use deadly weapons” towards protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fireside on unarmed civilians.

A few of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter earlier than crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed not less than 52 folks that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of many worst instances of police violence within the nation’s historical past.

Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, referred to as the tribunal a “farce”.

“It’s a kangaroo court docket managed by my political opponents to ship a pre-ordained responsible verdict… and to distract the world’s consideration from the chaos, violence and misrule of [the new] authorities,” she informed the BBC within the week earlier than her verdict.

She referred to as for the ban on her occasion to be lifted earlier than elections due in February.

Hasina can be charged with crimes towards humanity regarding compelled disappearances in the course of the Awami League’s rule in one other case on the similar tribunal in Bangladesh. Hasina and the Awami League deny all the costs.

Hasina and different senior members of her former authorities are additionally going through trial for corruption in a separate court docket – costs they deny.

Born to a Muslim household in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s “Father of the Nation” who led the nation’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 and have become its first president.

At the moment, Hasina had already established a repute as a scholar chief at Dhaka College.

Her father was assassinated with most of his members of the family in a navy coup in 1975. Solely Hasina and her youthful sister survived as they have been travelling overseas on the time.

After residing in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and have become the chief of the Awami League, the political occasion her father belonged to.

She joined fingers with different political events to carry pro-democracy avenue protests in the course of the navy rule of Normal Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the favored rebellion, Hasina rapidly grew to become a nationwide icon.

She was first elected to energy in 1996. She earned credit score for signing a water-sharing cope with India and a peace cope with tribal insurgents within the south-east of the nation.

However on the similar time, her authorities was criticised for quite a few allegedly corrupt enterprise offers and for being too subservient to India.

She later misplaced to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Get together, in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, each ladies have dominated Bangladesh politics for greater than three a long time and was once referred to as the “battling begums”. Begum refers to a Muslim girl of excessive rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings changing into common occurrences.

Hasina ultimately got here again to energy in 2009 in polls held beneath a caretaker authorities.

A real political survivor, she endured quite a few arrests whereas in opposition in addition to a number of assassination makes an attempt, together with one in 2004 that broken her listening to. She has additionally survived efforts to pressure her into exile and quite a few court docket instances through which she has been accused of corruption.

As soon as one of many world’s poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved credible financial success beneath her management from 2009.

Its per capita revenue tripled within the final decade and the World Financial institution estimates that greater than 25 million folks have been lifted out of poverty within the final 20 years.

A lot of this progress has been fuelled by the garment trade, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of whole exports from Bangladesh and has expanded quickly in current a long time, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Utilizing the nation’s personal funds, loans and improvement help, Hasina’s authorities additionally undertook big infrastructure tasks, together with the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge throughout the Ganges.

However Hasina has lengthy been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures towards her political opponents, detractors and the media – a outstanding turnaround for a pacesetter who as soon as fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights teams estimate there have been not less than 700 instances of enforced disappearances, with tons of extra topic to extra-judicial killings, since Hasina took energy once more in 2009. Hasina denies involvement in these.

Bangladesh’s safety forces have additionally been accused of great abuses. In 2021, the US sanctioned its Fast Motion Battalion – a infamous police unit accused of finishing up quite a few extra-judicial killings – citing human rights violations.

Human rights activists and journalists additionally confronted rising assaults together with arrests, surveillance and harassment.

Hasina’s authorities was additionally accused of “judicially harassing” targets with court docket instances, together with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus – who grew to become head of the interim authorities after Hasina fled. He had been jailed earlier in 2024 and confronted greater than 100 costs, in instances his supporters say have been politically motivated.

Hasina’s authorities flatly denied claims of such abuses, whereas additionally proscribing visits when it was in energy by overseas journalists in search of to analyze the allegations.

The protests towards civil service quotas, which sparked final 12 months’s rebellion, got here as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating prices of residing within the wake of the pandemic. Inflation skyrocketed, the nation’s overseas alternate reserves dropped precipitously, and its overseas debt doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on mismanagement by Hasina’s authorities, claiming that Bangladesh’s financial progress solely helped these near her.