DHAKA, Bangladesh — Abdur Rahman Tarif was speaking to his sister Meherunnesa over the telephone when the voice on the opposite finish of the decision all of the sudden fell silent.
In that second, Tarif knew one thing dangerous had occurred. He rushed residence, dodging the trade of fireplace between safety forces and protesters on the streets of Dhaka. When he lastly arrived, he found his dad and mom tending to his bleeding sister.
A stray bullet had hit Meherunnesa’s chest whereas she was standing beside the window of her room, Tarif mentioned. She was taken to a hospital the place medical doctors declared her useless.
Meherunnesa, 23, was killed on Aug. 5 final yr, the identical day Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was compelled to flee the nation in a large student-led rebellion, which ended her 15-year rule. For a lot of Bangladesh, Hasina’s ouster was a second of pleasure. Three days later, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over the nation as head of an interim authorities, promising to revive order and maintain a brand new election after mandatory reforms.
A yr on, Bangladesh is still reeling from that violence, and Hasina now faces trial for crimes in opposition to humanity, in absentia as she is in exile in India. However regardless of the bloodshed and lives misplaced, many say the prospect for a greater Bangladesh with a liberal democracy, political tolerance and non secular and communal concord has remained a problem.
“The hope of the hundreds who braved deadly violence a yr in the past after they opposed Sheikh Hasina’s abusive rule to construct a rights-respecting democracy stays unfulfilled,” mentioned Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights group.
Bangladesh’s anti-government motion exacted a heavy value. Hundreds of people, mostly students, were killed in violent protests. Indignant demonstrators torched police stations and authorities buildings. Political opponents often clashed with one another, typically resulting in ugly killings.
Like many Bangladeshis, Tarif and his sister took half within the rebellion, hoping for a broader political change, notably after when one in every of their cousins was shot and killed by safety forces.
“We couldn’t keep residence and needed Sheikh Hasina to go,” 20-year-old Tarif mentioned. “Finally we needed a rustic with none discrimination and injustice.”
In the present day, his hopes lie shattered. “We needed a change, however I’m pissed off now,” he mentioned.
After taking the reins, the Yunus-led administration fashioned 11 reform commissions, together with a nationwide consensus fee that’s working with main political events for future governments and the electoral course of.
Bickering political events have failed to achieve a consensus on a timetable and course of for elections. Mob violence, political assaults on rival events and teams, and hostility to girls’s rights and vulnerable minority groups by non secular hardliners have all surged.
Among the worry and repression that marked Hasina’s rule, and abuses reminiscent of widespread enforced disappearances, seem to have ended, rights teams say. Nonetheless, they accuse the brand new authorities of utilizing arbitrary detention to focus on perceived political opponents, particularly Hasina’s supporters, a lot of whom have been compelled to enter hiding.
Hasina’s Awami League occasion, which stays banned, says greater than two dozen of its supporters have died in custody over the past one yr.
Human Rights Watch in a press release on July 30 mentioned the interim authorities “is falling quick in implementing its difficult human rights agenda.” It mentioned violations in opposition to ethnic and different minority teams in some components of Bangladesh have continued.
“The interim authorities seems caught, juggling an unreformed safety sector, typically violent non secular hardliners, and political teams that appear extra targeted on extracting vengeance on Hasina’s supporters than defending Bangladeshis’ rights,” mentioned Ganguly.
Yunus’ workplace routinely rejects these allegations.
Bangladesh additionally faces political uncertainty over a return to democratically held elections.
Yunus has been at loggerheads with the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion, or BNP, now the principle contender for energy. The occasion headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has demanded elections both in December or February subsequent yr. Yunus has mentioned they may very well be held in April.
The interim authorities has additionally cleared the way for the Islamists, who have been beneath extreme stress throughout Hasina’s regime, to rise, whereas the coed leaders who spearheaded the rebellion have fashioned a new political party. The scholars’ occasion calls for that the structure be rewritten, if wanted fully, and says it gained’t enable the election with out main reforms.
In the meantime, many hardline Islamists have both fled jail or have been launched, and the Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s largest Islamist occasion, which has a controversial previous, is now aspiring to a task in authorities. It usually bitterly criticizes the BNP, equating it with Hasina’s Awami League, and not too long ago held a large rally in Dhaka as a present of energy. Critics worry that better affect of the Islamist forces might fragment Bangladesh’s political panorama additional.
“Any rise of Islamists demonstrates a future Bangladesh the place radicalization might get a form the place so-called disciplined Islamist forces might work as a catalyst in opposition to liberal and reasonable forces,” political analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah mentioned.
Worries additionally stay over whether or not the federal government is finally able to enacting reforms.
“Folks’s expectation was (that) Yunus authorities shall be targeted and solely geared in the direction of reforming the electoral course of. However now it’s a missed alternative for them,” Kalimullah mentioned.
For some, not a lot has modified within the final yr.
Meherunnesa’s father, Mosharraf Hossain, mentioned the rebellion was not for a mere change in authorities, however symbolized deeper frustrations. “We would like a brand new Bangladesh … It’s been 54 years since independence, but freedom was not achieved,” he mentioned.
Tarif echoed his father’s remarks, including that he was not proud of the present state of the nation.
“I need to see the brand new Bangladesh as a spot the place I really feel safe, the place the regulation enforcement companies will carry out their duties correctly, and no authorities will resort to enforced disappearances or killings like earlier than. I need to have the best to talk freely,” he mentioned.
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AP’s video journalist Al emrun Garjon contributed to the story.