Millions of people are expected to cast ballots in the first polls since prime minister Sheikh Hasina was removed. Following weeks of demonstrations, in August 2024, millions of young protesters in Bangladesh managed to topple the government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who had been in power for 15 years.
That era of fear, many Bangladeshis believed, had ended with Hasina's ouster in the popular student-led uprising, which forced her to flee to India on August 5, 2024. But while the interim government of Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who replaced Hasina, is not accused of orchestrating any such excesses, political violence in Bangladesh is surging again ahead of the upcoming vote.
After the killing of Sharif Osman Hadi in December and the funeral that drew hundreds of thousands of people into the heart of Dhaka, the nation briefly convulsed with grief. Then, as it almost always does, the emotion receded. Even martyrdom has a shelf life in public memory. Ordinary people, burdened by survival, do not grieve indefinitely. Mourning fades and life intrudes. Bangladesh has seen this before.