Some of the students whose protests launched a Revolution in Bangladesh Last year and prompted the ouster of the authoritarian chief of the country in difficulty, Sheikh Hasina, is now taking a more conventional path to continue their vision of the country: they launched a political party.
Friday, during a rally in Dacca, the capital, some of the former student leaders announced the creation of the National Citizens’ Party, who, according to them, would continue a “centrist” political ideology. Although membership is open to everyone, the party will target students, of which thousands have joined the 2024 demonstrations, but many of which have since returned to their normal life.
The management of the new party will be Nahid IslamA 27 -year -old university graduate who helped direct the call for the resignation of Ms. Hasina after a rule of 15 years during which Democratic freedoms have eroded In the midst of allegations of corruption and rigged elections.
After the eviction of Mrs. Hasina, Mr. Islam joined the interim governmentLed by the winner of the Nobel Prize Muhammad Yunus, who seeks to restore order in Bangladesh and open the way for free and fair elections. The country has not set a date, but Mr. Yunus said that a vote could occur by December. Mr. Islam resigned from his role in the government this week to create the new party.
The transition for the country of more than 170 million people was chaotic. The interim authorities have struggled to control anarchy, in particular the attacks on revenge against political opponents, theft and intimidation of religious minorities.
The Bangladesh police forces were in disarray, after it became a target of the uprising for having made the repression of the overturned leader. In chaos immediately after the departure of Mrs. Hasina, dozens of police officers were killed by angry crowds and others abandoned their functions. While the army intervened to help maintain order, the reconstruction of the police was a difficult task.
Last week, Bangladesh’s army leader raised continuous chaos concerns.
“I warn you now, so later you cannot say that I did not do it,” said General Waker-Uz-Zaman in a speech. “If you cannot reserve your differences and work together, if you continue to blame yourself and fight, the independence and sovereignty of this country will be in danger.”
Hope is that taking a political route will hear the voices of students while Bangladesh tries to build a robust democracy. An umbrella group called Students Against Discrimination, which represented most of the demonstrators, will continue as a non -political entity.
Previous discussions on a student political party have criticized a rival. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which has become the largest political group in the country after the actual disappearance of the Awami League of Ms. Hasina, complained that the new party had an unjust advantage since its leader had been part of the interim government.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamper, the head of the BNP, said that he had welcomed the training of a student party, “but that does not mean that you can stay in the government, take advantage of all the advantages of the government and train your party at the same time.”
Two other student leaders who had joined the interim government, Mahfuj Alam and Asif Mahmud, said they would stay in their posts and do not join the party of national citizens. Mr. Mahmud recently declared that they could not be affiliated with any political party because they helped to supervise the democratic transition.