Hasina’s fate sealed after Bangladesh army refused to suppress protests

According to two army officers, the night before Bangladesh’s leader Sheikh Hasina fled due to deadly protests, the army chief met with his generals and decided not to fire on civilians to enforce a curfew.


Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman then contacted Hasina’s office, informing her that his forces would be unable to carry out the lockdown she had requested, according to an Indian official briefed on the situation.

The message was plain, according to the official: Hasina no longer had the army’s support.

Details of the online conference between military leaders and the message to Hasina that she had lost their support had not previously been disclosed.

They help to explain how Hasina’s 15-year leadership, during which she tolerated little dissent, came to such a tumultuous and abrupt conclusion on Monday, when she fled Bangladesh for India.

The nationwide ban was ordered following at least 91 deaths and hundreds of injuries in riots on Sunday, the worst day since student-led protests against Hasina began in July.

Lt. Col. Sami Ud Dowla Chowdhury, an army spokesperson, acknowledged the Sunday evening conversations, which he described as a routine gathering to get information following any disturbance. When asked additional questions concerning decision-making at the meeting, he did not provide any answers.

Hasina could not be reached, and her son and advisor, Sajeeb Wazed, did not answer to multiple demands for comment.

Reuters spoke with ten people acquainted with the past week’s events, including four serving army commanders and two other informed sources in Bangladesh, to piece together Hasina’s final 48 hours in power. Many of them spoke on the condition of anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the situation.

Hasina, who has controlled Bangladesh for 20 of the last 30 years, was elected to a fourth term in January, following the imprisonment of hundreds of opposition leaders and workers. Her main challengers boycotted the election.

Her iron-fisted grip on power has been tested since the summer by protests sparked by a court decision to reserve government posts – highly sought after in an era of high youth unemployment – for specific parts of the population. The judgment was overturned, but the protests swiftly escalated into a push to depose Hasina.

Zaman has not officially addressed his decision to withdraw his support for Hasina. However, the intensity of the protests and the dead toll of at least 241 made it unsustainable to defend Hasina at any cost, according to three former senior Bangladesh army officers.

“There was a lot of unease among the troops,” stated former Brigadier General M. Sakhawat Hossain. “That is what probably (put) pressure on the chief of army staff, because the troops are out and they are seeing what is happening.”

Zaman, who is married to Hasina, appeared to be losing faith in the prime minister on Saturday, when he sat on an elegant wooden chair and addressed hundreds of uniformed officers during a town hall meeting. The military later made some parts of the conversation public.

The general stressed that lives must be preserved and urged his officers to be patient, according to army spokesman Chowdhury.

It was the first hint that Bangladesh’s army would not use force to crush the violent demonstrations, leaving Hasina exposed.

Retired senior troops, including Brig. Gen. Mohammad Shahedul Anam Khan, disobeyed the curfew on Monday and took to the streets.


“We were not stopped by the army,” said Khan, a former infantryman. “The army has done what he had promised the army would do.”

Short notice

On Monday, the first full day of the indefinite nationwide curfew, Hasina was holed up inside the Ganabhaban, or “People’s Palace,” a heavily guarded complex in the capital Dhaka that serves as her official home.


Crowds congregated outside, on the city’s wide streets. Tens of thousands of people have responded to protest leaders’ demand for a march to topple the leader, flooding into the city center.

With the situation escalating out of control, the 76-year-old leader chose to quit the country on Monday morning, according to an Indian official and two Bangladesh nationals acquainted with the issue.

Hasina and her sister, who lives in London but was in Dhaka at the time, discussed the situation and flew out jointly, according to a Bangladeshi source. They left for India at lunchtime (local time).

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, told parliament on Tuesday that New Delhi had asked “various political forces with whom we were in touch” to resolve the situation through talks during July.

However, as people gathered in Dhaka on Monday, ignoring the curfew, Hasina announced her resignation “after a meeting with leaders of the security establishment,” he claimed. “At very short notice, she requested approval to come for the moment to India.”

A second Indian official stated that Hasina was informed “diplomatically” that her visit would be temporary in order to avoid jeopardizing Delhi’s relations with the next government in Dhaka. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, whom the protesting students want to lead the interim administration following Hasina’s removal, told The New Indian Express newspaper that India had “good ties with the wrong people…” Please review your foreign policy.

Yunus was not immediately available for an interview.

Late on Monday afternoon, a Bangladesh Air Force C130 transport plane landed at Hindon air base near Delhi, carrying Hasina.

According to an Indian security officer, she was welcomed there by Ajit Doval, the country’s senior national security advisor.


Delhi fought to separate Bangladesh from East Pakistan in 1971. After her father was slain in 1975, Hasina sought sanctuary in India for several years, where she developed close ties with her neighbor’s political elite.

When she returned to Bangladesh, she rose to power in 1996 and was perceived as more attentive to India’s security concerns than her political opponents. The Hindu-majority nation also saw her secular position as beneficial to Bangladesh’s 13 million Hindus.

Back in Bangladesh, animosity remained, especially among former troops, that Hasina had been allowed to depart.

“Personally, I believe she should not have been granted a safe passage,” said Khan, the veteran. “That was a folly.”