Nazifa Jannat was elated when she learnt that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had fled Bangladesh on August 5, 2024. She had risked her life in opposing the Awami League leader’s authoritarian rule, leading students from private universities to protest – a crucial pressure point when the government cracked down with lethal force on public universities.
However, later that day, when Jannat arrived at Ganabhaban, Hasina’s official residence, her mood soured. The house was being looted by protesters. “I tried to stop them,” she said with frustration. “I went around on a cycle rickshaw with a mic – what I had used to direct crowds during the uprising – making announcements to stop the looting.”
None of it worked. Even her pleas to the army personnel standing there had no effect. What Jannat saw made her feel terrible.
“This is our national property,” she said. “We might hate the person inside but why should it be looted? What are we proving with this vandalism?”
The chaos in Ganabhaban she saw that day muddied what should have been a day of triumph for her. “It didn’t feel right that night when I went home,” she said.
Eighteen months after the July revolution, with Bangladesh on the brink of its first post-Hasina elections,...
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