A 26-year-old student Nahid Islam is getting praise online for organizing and leading the protests against ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The demonstrations ended her 15-year reign and forced her to flee to neighboring India.
After Hasina’s resignation, Bangladesh’s Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman Monday announced the formation of an interim government after he had “successful” talks with leaders of all major political parties.
Islam’s father is a teacher.
The student leader made the headlines last month after being arrested by the police along with several other Dhaka University students as the police started crackdown on the violent anti-quota protesters that have resulted in around 300 deaths.
Also read: Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina resigns, flees to India
Islam, along with other student leaders, was slated to meet the country’s army chief today.
However, General Zaman then announced the former PM’s resignation as well as the formation of an interim setup to govern Bangladesh.
On the country’s future politics, Islam has maintained that the students will not accept any government led or supported by the military and in fact has proposed the country’s Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus’s name for the post of chief adviser in the new government setup.
“Any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted,” the student leader said in a social media post on Facebook today.
Earlier speaking to the media he had said that the students would not betray the blood of martyrs who gave their lives for their cause.
“We will create a new democratic Bangladesh through our promise of security of life, social justice and a new political landscape,” Islam said while being supported by other student leaders.
Rejecting the possibility of the return of what he termed as “fascist rule”, he called on his fellow students to protect the minorities and their places of worship in the ongoing critical situation in the country.
Giving an insight into Islam’s resolve and commitment to the cause, Nakib Islam, a Geography student, told Reuters that the student leader has remarkable stamina and has always believed that the country needed to change.
Nakib further said that despite being tortured by the police., who had dumped Islam on the road after he became unconscious, the student leader continued to fight.
“We have confidence that he will not give up. [We are] proud of him,” he added.
Meanwhile, Associate Professor of Government at Cornell University Sabrina Karim, who specialises in studying political violence, has termed the developments in Bangladesh as “historic”.
“This might very well be the first successful Gen Z-led revolution, There is perhaps some optimism for a democratic transition even if the military is involved in the process,” the academic noted.
