Dhaka: Software engineer Tawhidul Alam says the “historic August 5” is indelibly etched in his memory – the sea of ​​people on the streets of Dhaka and a chain of events following unprecedented anti-government protests that set Bangladesh’s destiny on a new trajectory.

The Dhaka resident recalled the chaos that reigned in Bangladesh’s capital that day, from the main roads to the airport, which was “closed for six hours” after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government.

“I have no political inclination. I just went to the protests as a citizen of suffering Bangladesh. A sea of ​​people on the streets of Dhaka, I have never seen such crowds on the streets and at the demonstrations with ‘victory’ slogans,” Alam said. PTI Here.

As anti-government protests reached their peak on August 5, Prime Minister Hasina resigned and fled the country, even as protesters called the government’s overthrow and departure a “Victory Day.”

The 76-year-old controversial head of government landed in India on August 5 and is currently staying there. New Delhi had previously stated that it wanted to give Hasina time to make up her own mind, even though her two-week stay in India had led to a lot of speculation.

Several hundred people were killed and many injured in the protests in Bangladesh triggered by the reintroduction of a quota system for public sector jobs.

Nearly 650 people were killed in recent unrest in Bangladesh between July 16 and August 11, according to a preliminary report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The office proposed a thorough, impartial and transparent investigation into reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions.

Among the dead were demonstrators, passers-by, journalists and several members of the security forces, according to the UNHCR report. Thousands of demonstrators and passers-by were injured and hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of patients.

Alam said he went as a spectator to “witness the protests,” even though it was risky to leave the house.

“I knew it was a risk, but I walked the long march for a while and then went home. That was a moment when history was made,” he recalls.

The software developer, whose employer is in the tourism sector, also visited India a few days ago and returned on August 18.

“Operations at Dhaka International Airport are more or less normal now, but on August 5, there was sheer chaos when it was announced that the airport would remain closed for six hours. My Bangladeshi friend living in Canada was at the airport when the closure happened, so he could not fly and had to return to the city,” Alam said, adding that he had rebooked his flight and arrived in Vancouver a few days ago.

A brother-sister duo from Bangladesh, who wished to remain anonymous, also recently returned from India, where their parents were undergoing medical treatment.

“We took a flight from Dhaka to Delhi soon after commercial operations resumed at Dhaka airport. I think we were lucky because both our father and mother were in India and we had to visit them,” he said, adding that their visa was approved because their parents had a medical emergency.

Besides Alam and the siblings from Dhaka, many other Bangladeshi citizens PTI spoke to expressed similar sentiments about the August 5 events.

On August 8, after the dissolution of parliament, a transitional government was sworn in with Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus as chief advisor. A demand from the anti-discrimination movement for students was the decisive factor in this decision.

Mohd Shahid lives near the Shaheed Minar in Dhaka’s University District, a monument dedicated to the Bengali language movement in the country. He says this monument and Shahbagh have been the hotbeds of recent anti-government protests.

“When the police fired, I could hear it from my house and see several thousand people on the streets defying the curfew. Those shots still echo in my mind when I think of them,” he told PTI at the Shaheed Minar on Monday evening.

Md Mashrur, 21, a first-year economics student at Dhaka University, said he also wanted to go out and watch the protests, but “my parents did not allow me to go out due to security concerns.”

However, a transitional government is now in office to replace the old regime. “That’s why I’m satisfied” and hope that new elections will take place as soon as possible, he said.