Another Shrabon, or Shaon, is there in Bangladesh now. The fourth month on the traditional Bangla calendar is also the second month of Barsha, the wet season when rainfall occurs heavily. One year back, the month of Shrabon in Bangladesh was full of fury against the now fallen autocratic government's brutal oppression. Though it started earlier as a protest movement against the resumption of the discriminatory quota system in the public service, the movement reached a critical juncture on the first day of Shrabon (July 16) last year. On that fateful day, fearless Abu Syed of the Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur was shot dead by the police. The brutal killing intensified the raging protests across the country and further unified students against the oppressive government of Sheikh Hasina.
The day before, on July 15, leaders and activists of the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) ruthlessly attacked the protesting students at the Dhaka University campus and some other educational institutions in the country. The goons of BCL once again showed their ugliest faces, as they had done for the last 15 years, terrifying ordinary students on various occasions. Hasina and her associates in the government and the party were confident that the BCL goons would suppress the protestors as they had done before. The BCL goons reinforced the brutal attack on the next day, presuming that the protesters had already been subdued. But the killing of Abu Syed and some others, coupled with BCL brutality, had reenergised the protestors, and they strongly resisted the BCL goons on different campuses the next day. For the first time in 15 years, students forced the BCL goons to leave the campuses. Protestors fearlessly chased the goons across the country and did not hesitate to counter-attack them where necessary.
In this way, the movement reached a new peak, clearly giving a signal that the government would achieve little by using brutal force. The Hasina regime was, however, determined to suppress the movement by any means and so resorted to further brutal actions. Only some partisan people, shameless loyalists and vested beneficiaries extended their unqualified support to the regime's cruel policy. Even an internet shutdown was imposed in Bangladesh following the example of the internet blackout in Indian Kashmir by the central government there.
Things, however, started to slip out of the regime's hands as people from different walks of life expressed their support for the protesting students and youths. As the death toll had been increasing, violent clashes erupted between the protestors and law-enforcing agencies and goons of the Awami League. The rainy days of Shrabon were bloodied red. Coordinators of the movement had announced programme after programme to keep the momentum in the face of intimidation. Programmes like 'complete shutdown', 'march for justice' and 'droho jatra' (rebel parade) were joined by a growing number of people in solidarity with the students' movement.
As the regime felt that things were getting out of control fast, it continued suppressive measures, resulting in block raids to arrest anyone who joined or supported the movement and also indiscriminate firing by the police, along with firing from helicopters by the RAB. The killing spree and constant intimidation forced the protesters to announce a one-point demand: resignation of the Hasina-led government. To realise the demand, the protestors also announced nationwide non-cooperation campaigns. The final blow came when the coordinators announced the 'March to Dhaka', urging people from different parts of the country to assemble in the capital city on Shrabon 21 (August 5). The rest is history. The army refused to move against the people. Hasina resigned and flew to New Delhi to seek shelter. She left the country with a legacy of killing 1,400 people, more than 20,000 injured, a decade-long period of intimidation and chaos. Shrabon thus becomes a red-letter month in the history of Bangladesh.
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