Sheikh Hasina: A critical misstep and the end of 15 years of rule
Al Jazeera
Following weeks of protests, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned on Monday and fled the country.
Dhaka, Bangladesh – It all began with a single word: “Razakar“.
In Bangladesh, “Razakar” is a highly offensive term. The word means volunteers but it refers to those who supported the Pakistani military’s operation to quell the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war and were accused of heinous crimes.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, who resigned and fled the country in an army helicopter on Monday amid widespread unrest, has been known for using this term to label anyone she perceived as a threat or dissenter during her more than 15 years in power.
The daughter of the country’s founding father and former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina was the leader of a pro-democracy uprising that toppled military ruler and then-President Hossain Mohammad Ershad from power in 1990.
Hasina first became prime minister after her Awami League party won the elections in 1996. She came to power again in 2009, helping to achieve impressive economic growth, while growing increasingly autocratic, cracking down on free speech, dissent and opposition in Bangladesh, a country of 170 million and the world’s eighth-most populated.
