As a final-year student at a private university, Mahjabeen had weathered the chaos of several turbulent days on the streets, during which more than 200 people – primarily students and ordinary citizens – were killed by the police, with assistance from factions of Bangladesh’s ruling party.

She had been forced to stay away from home as, following the initial suppression of the protests, law enforcement officials conducted “block raids” across the country, detaining students indiscriminately. From her temporary refuge, she received intermittent updates on Facebook through a VPN, as the government had imposed a complete internet blackout for five days, keeping social media platforms inaccessible.

“I saw a white page with the names and signatures of some of our main coordinators of the quota reform protest, and I just broke down in tears,” Mahjabeen recounted. “I thought, is this the end? Will no justice be served?”

She urgently reached out to her fellow protesters, and after several discussions, they realised that the coordinators must have been coerced into signing the statement while in custody of the Detective Branch of the police. “We, the students, decided to immediately reject the statement,” Mahjabeen said. “However, we needed our coordinators to publicly announce this rejection and within hours, the remaining coordinators, who were still in hiding, made the announcement against the coerced statement.”

The events of the following days dramatically changed the situation. The infamous chief of the Detective Branch, once thought to be the most powerful police officer in the country, was transferred – something that seemed unimaginable just days earlier. The six detained coordinators were eventually released, and most crucially, the lingering fear that had stifled the public’s willingness to speak out against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s “oppressive” regime began to dissipate.

‘Overused narrative’

The student-led protest, initially focused on reforming the quota system in government jobs –particularly the 30% allocation for the descendants of Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War veterans –evolved into a comprehensive anti-government movement now. It began with a nine-point list of demands, which included an unconditional apology from Prime Minister Hasina and the dismissal of Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, and ultimately condensed to a single demand: the resignation of the government.

Extraordinary acts of defiance have begun to emerge, which, though Prime Minister Hasina’s 15-year rule – achieved through three largely controversial and allegedly rigged elections, two of which lacked effective opposition – would previously have been unthinkable. The regime not only used enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings to suppress dissent but also enacted laws like the Digital Security Act to arbitrarily arrest and imprison anyone deemed “problematic”.

At Jahangirnagar University, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Shamima Sultana, head of the Bangla Department, removed a portrait of Sheikh Hasina from her office wall, challenging established norms. “I refuse to display the picture of a murderer [Hasina], who is responsible for my [students’] blood,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

Had this been done in normal times, Sultana would likely have been labeled as a “Jamaat-Shibir” supporter – a term used to associate her with Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist political party with a controversial history for supporting the Pakistani junta during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war. While Jamaat-e-Islami is a major political party with millions of followers in a nation of 170 million, its vilification, along with that of its student wing Shibir, has served Hasina’s Awami League for nearly a decade.

It’s not merely the use of brute force or a compromised judiciary that has made Hasina the longest-serving female head of government in modern Bangladeshi history. Her administration has excelled at first creating a narrative against its perceived opponents and then relentlessly promoting this narrative through the country’s mainstream media and a vast network of activists. The stigma surrounding Jamaat-e-Islami is a prime example of a successful narrative crafted by Hasina’s regime.

This stigma is partially self-inflicted by Jamaat. The party’s support for the Pakistani junta during Bangladesh’s Liberation War and the subsequent death sentences for many of its leaders for crimes against humanity have contributed to this negative perception. The trials and sentences occurred during the first of the Awami League’s four consecutive terms from 2009 to 2014. Although the trial process was contentious, Jamaat has never publicly apologised for its support of the Pakistani oppressors during the 1971 war.

Nonetheless, Jamaat and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party – the main rival of Hasina’s Awami League – have consistently been portrayed as the regime’s political adversaries. Over the past 15 years, Hasina has cast her supporters as the legitimate heirs to the legacy of the country’s independence struggle and its successes, while depicting dissenters and opposition members from Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat as remnants of treasonous and extremist forces. For a long time, Hasina succeeded in convincing a significant portion of the apolitical population of this narrative.

Even during this student-led uprising, her administration fiercely attempted to use the same smoke and mirrors strategy. Hasina and her ministers worked to shift the public’s attention from the death tolls to the “economic damage” caused by the student protests. They alleged that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami had “hijacked” the protests from the students, redirecting them to further their own political agendas of causing disruption and attempting to overthrow the government.

This time, however, the strategy backfired. Frustrated and disillusioned with the “overused narrative”, students organised a large procession at Dhaka University – the country’s largest public university within hours of Hasina describing the protestors as “razakars”, the word used to describe collaborators during the independence struggle.

The situation quickly escalated when Hasina’s party’s student wing attempted to quell the unrest with their usual harsh tactics. In her years in power, Hasina had never faced a situation where a student protest over job quotas rapidly transformed into a widespread revolt, with people demanding her resignation and branding her an autocrat.

A mass uprising

The protest has now escalated into a mass uprising aimed at overthrowing what many see as an autocratic regime. What began as a student protest against the government job quota system has evolved into a widespread movement, with people from all walks of life flooding the streets and demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Hasina. “There are no ifs and buts anymore,” declared Nazia Andalib, an aspiring poet and NGO worker. “This is no longer just a quota reform movement. It’s a movement against Hasina and her oppressive government. She must resign now.”

After brutally suppressing the initial protest, Hasina and her ministers implemented a quota reform by hastily convening a court session – something her administration had previously claimed was an independent process which operates at its own speed – and issuing a government circular within two days that reduced the quota from 56% to 7%. They hoped this reform would quell the anger and persuade the protesting students to return home.

“The irony is that a political party with over a decade and a half of ruling experience believed that a mere reform could pacify the deep-seated frustration caused by Hasina’s numerous wrongdoings,” said political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman. “The latest of which is Hasina’s refusal to acknowledge her mistakes, including allowing police and party members to use brutal force against students and ordinary citizens, resulting in hundreds of deaths.”

That’s not all. After the initial wave of protests, the government’s heavy-handed tactics, including “block raids” against students and the arrest of at least 10,372 people nationwide – along with the arbitrary detention of an unverified number of individuals without charges – only intensified public anger. Despite the fear instilled by these widespread arrests, student protesters have remained steadfast.

They have launched a new wave of demonstrations with names like “March for Justice” and “Remembering Our Heroes”, organising protests at educational institutions, court premises and major roads across the country. These events have drawn tens of thousands of people from all walks of life. On Friday, despite the monsoon rains, large crowds gathered in the capital and other parts of the country, with some equipped with raincoats and umbrellas, while others braved the downpour.

“What was Mughda’s fault? What was the fault of that little girl standing on the balcony?” said a 12th-grade student, whose board exams have been postponed. “What crime did so many innocent people commit to deserve such brutal deaths? We demand justice for each of these murders.”

Notably, students from at least 50 prominent high schools across the country have vowed not to attend exams until their demands are acknowledged and justice is served.

On the ground, protest slogans have escalated to openly labeling Hasina as a dictator – a previously unimaginable move. In Thakurgaon, a northern district, female students chanted, “Who came? Who came? The police came, the police came. What are they doing? They are here to lick the dictator’s feet,” while police forces maintained their positions.

In southeastern Chattogram, a massive crowd of protesters chanted slogans in Bengali such as, “Down with autocracy, let democracy be free”, “1, 2, 3, 4…Sheikh Hasina, dictator” and “What do we want? Resignation…One demand, one condition. Resignation, resignation.”

“She [Hasina] is using bullets bought with our tax money to shoot us,” a female student declared on national television during a protest in Dhaka amidst the continuous rain. “This country doesn’t belong to anyone’s father. It belongs to all of us.”

Graffiti, artwork, festoons and banners are now being displayed in every nook and cranny of the country, vividly expressing widespread discontent with the government. At Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, students and teachers braved the monsoon weather on Thursday to stage protest marches, featuring resistance songs, dramatic performances and art.

“Our demands are clear: the downfall of the dictator, the fulfilment of our nine-point agenda, and justice for those whose blood has stained the streets,” said Prapti Taposhi, a student activist. “We will remain on the streets until all our demands are met.”

Visual artists, including TV stars, directors, and producers, have taken to the streets to support the nine demands of the quota reform protesters in the capital. In a statement endorsed by around a hundred artists, they called for the resignation of the current government, stating, “For years, we have been denied our right to vote and voice our opinions on crucial national issues. Our freedom to dissent has been suppressed.”

Several prominent bands and musicians have announced their decision to boycott the state-organised Joy Bangla Concert, a popular annual event held on March 7 to commemorate a historic speech in 1971 by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s father.

The hashtag #StepDownHasina is currently trending on X (formerly Twitter), with over 80,000 posts expressing dissatisfaction. Calligraphy images and captions such as “One demand, one goal: the resignation of killer Hasina” are also being widely shared. Social media is being used to rally youth, with many urging that “the resistance must continue”. Support for the movement has grown on the streets, attracting tens of thousands, including teachers, actors, and citizens from various backgrounds, who have joined students in their demonstrations. Reports indicate that teachers have been actively blocking police from detaining students, with many engaging in heated arguments with officers to secure their release.

Some of these confrontations have led to physical altercations, with media reports revealing that two female teachers from Dhaka University were struck by police while attempting to prevent the detention of their students. This incident has sparked widespread outrage, as many question the police’s audacity in physically confronting female university staff.

“They kill our students, beat them, and even target the female ones, detaining them unlawfully. As their teachers, we cannot accept this,” said Shamima Sultana, the professor who removed Sheikh Hasina’s portrait from her office. “How can a policeman have the audacity to strike a university teacher?”

Salimullah Khan, a prominent scholar, condemned the killings during the quota reform protests as “state-sponsored acts carried out by government forces and their allies” while leading a group of university teachers in a demonstration in Dhaka. “Do any of you believe that this government can deliver justice while in power?” he asked. “They will not seek justice for these deaths because this government is the perpetrator. How can you expect a killer to deliver justice for their own massacre?”

He emphasised the need for a political resolution. “The first step is for the current government to unconditionally apologise and resign,” he said.

Asif Nazrul, a prominent political analyst and professor of Law at Dhaka University, said the mass-upsurge against the government was a long due as people have a long growing dissatisfaction with the government. “Consider the current living standards: inflation and food prices have soared dramatically, with food inflation at 10.76% and overall inflation exceeding 9% for nearly a year,” he noted.

In addition, there have been reports of leaked civil service exam questions and numerous government officials involved in widespread corruption.

“Now, the severe mishandling of a student-led protest, which led to over 200 deaths, adds to the discontent,” Nazrul said. “It is clear that public trust in this government has completely eroded. If the government cannot deliver justice to the nation, it should resign.”

Faisal Mahmud and Mehedi Hasan Marof are reporters based in Dhaka.