Exactly one month ago today, Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned in the face of mass protests and fled to India. Three days after the incident on August 5, Nobel laureate professor Dr. The interim government of Muhammad Yunus.
The new government has seen a massive reshuffle at the top of the administration in the past month, which is still ongoing. Along with this, reform initiatives have been taken in several areas including the financial sector of the country.
Local representatives were removed and replaced by administrators. It has been decided to form a separate commission for banking reform. Along with this, steps are being taken to bring back the irregular-fraud loans and smuggled money to the country.
After fear of strike and attack, the police returned to the field again. The new government is talking about making the army people-friendly through various reforms including changing the uniform and logo.
Meanwhile, one after another cases are being filed against Sheikh Hasina and Awami League MP-ministers on various charges including murder, and many have been arres
In contrast, several cases of chief counsel Prof. Yunus and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia were quashed. Leaders and activists of various political parties including BNP-Jamaat have been released from jail.
All in all, what exactly happened in the last month?
Return to police stations
After the fall of the Awami League government on August 5, there were unprecedented attacks on many police stations in different areas. Bangladesh Police Association said at least 450 out of 639 police stations across the country were ‘affected’ at that time.
Vandalism and burning of police stations, looting of weapons and goods, and even police killings were seen to happen. Officials said at least 44 members of the police were killed across the country in violence before and after the fall of the government.
In such a situation, the policemen started a strike for several demands including security at the workplace, prosecution of police killings, compensation. The overall law and order situation of the country has worsened along with the increase in thefts and robberies.
At one point, local residents and volunteers started keeping vigil in the neighborhood.
As a result, the interim government under the leadership of Professor Muhammad Yunus took the initiative to normalize the law and order situation in the entire country after assuming power.
The then Home Affairs Advisor retired Brigadier General M Sakhawat Hossain assured to meet the demands of the police after several rounds of meetings.
Also, setting a deadline for joining the workplace, he said that if he does not join the work by August 15, he will be considered not willing to work.
In this situation, the policemen returned to the police station after withdrawing the strike on August 11. However, it will take some more time for operations to be completely normal after overcoming the damage, it has been informed by the forces.
Meanwhile, besides increasing morale, the government has decided to change the uniform and logo of the force to make the police more people-friendly.
While many are skeptical about how much the change in uniform and logo will change police work, there are also questions about the huge cost.
However, in the recent context, the chief of the force feels that there is a need to change the uniform.
‘A lot has happened in the recent movement to wear these clothes…Clothes create a mindset. That’s why it needs to be changed,’ said the new IGP to BBC Bangla. Moinul Islam.
“We will try to ensure that the police do not overdo it, that people get the community trust,” said Islam.
Massive reshuffle in administration
The past one month has seen massive reshuffle in various administrative posts, especially after the caretaker government assumed power. Hundreds of senior officers have been newly transferred, posted and appointed in various ministries including home, public administration, local government.
Many have also become Officers on Special Duty (OSD). Several have also been sent into compulsory retirement.
Tofazzal Hossain Mia, who was in charge of the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary, and Masud Bin Momen, who was in charge of the Foreign Secretary, have already been dropped among the top officials who were appointed on contractual basis during the Awami League period.
Similarly, Senior Secretary of Internal Resources Department and Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) Md. Abu Hena lost his job. Rahmatul Munim.
The Secretary of Financial Institutions Department of the Ministry of Finance has been appointed in his place. Abdur Rahman Khan.
Earlier, on August 6, Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun’s contract was canceled and the new Inspector General of Police (IGP) was appointed as additional IGP. Moynul Islam.
Compulsory retirement has been given to the discussed police officer Monirul Islam, former commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Habibur Rahman, Commissioner of Rangpur Metropolitan Police Md. Moniruzzaman and many other officials.
On the other hand, the senior secretary of the Ministry of Shipping, Mustafa Kamal, the senior secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration, Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury, and several other officials have been made Officers on Special Duty (OSD).
Those who are being removed from important administrative posts are alleged to be ‘loyal to Sheikh Hasina’s government’. In their place, it is known that officials who were previously cornered or victims of deprivation are getting priority.
The interim government has recently issued a notification appointing more than two and a half people who have not been appointed in the last one and a half years despite passing all the stages of the Public Service Commission examination.
However, it has been informed by the government that the administration is being reshuffled to speed up the work.
“Those who are not able to function properly from the responsibilities are being changed rapidly in all national places,” Ali Imam Mazumdar, attached adviser to the Office of the Chief Adviser, told BBC Bangla.
He also informed that all contractual appointments of the previous administration will be phased out.
Major changes in the Judiciary Department
After the overthrow of the Awami League government, there have been major changes in the Judiciary Department.
Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan, who was appointed during the Awami League period, was forced to resign on August 10 in the face of the demands of the anti-discrimination student movement. Other judges of the Appellate Division also resigned with him.
After this incident, Appellate Division Judge Syed Refat Ahmed took oath as a new judge. Similarly, four new judges were appointed to the Appellate Division.
Meanwhile, the former Attorney General AM Amin Uddin was replaced by the senior lawyer of the Supreme Court. Asaduzzaman.
Asaduzzaman was the central human rights affairs secretary of BNP. As a result, the question of whether he has been appointed on the basis of party considerations is also raised.
On the other hand, the interim government has recently appointed 227 lawyers as Deputy Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General across the country by canceling the previous appointments.
Among them, 66 Supreme Court lawyers have been appointed as Deputy Attorney General and 161 lawyers as Assistant Attorney General.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina, the resignation of top officials of government, semi-government and even private institutions is seen. In this case, some are voluntarily resigning, while in many institutions, officials are being forced to resign in the face of various pressures including protests, insults and insults.
In the face of student protests, most of the public universities in the country, including Dhaka University, have given up their duties, including VC, Provost, and Proctor. Out of this only Dhaka University VC has been appointed.
Education and Planning Adviser Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud told reporters that new VCs will be appointed in the rest of the universities soon.
Also, the former governor of Bangladesh Bank, Abdur Rauf Talukder, resigned on August 9 in the face of workers’ protests. In the previous two days, at least four top officials, including the deputy governor, were forced to resign by writing on a white paper.
Later, Ahsan H. Mansoor, the former executive director of the Policy Research Institute (PRI), a private research institute, was made the new governor.
Similarly, in the last few weeks, top officials of various institutions including Dhaka WASA, University Grants Commission (UGC), Bangla Academy, Shilpakala Academy, Shishu Academy have submitted their resignations.
Meanwhile, it is known that the current Election Commission headed by Kazi Habibul Awal may announce his resignation on Thursday.
On the other hand, among the private institutions, Bangladesh Bank has dissolved the previous board of at least eight banks including Islami Bank and formed a new board.
Apart from this, there have been changes in the top positions in institutions like the Press Club. The same thing happened, time and seventies television.
Dr.
With the fall of the overturned government of Yunus and Khaleda Zia, there has been a change in the judiciary. Also, many cases have been overturned.
Nobel laureate Professor Dr. was sentenced to six months imprisonment in the case of violation of labor law during Awami League regime. Muhammad Yunus and Noorjahan Begum, former managing director of Grameen Bank.
But the day before they were sworn in as advisers to the interim government, both of them were acquitted of the charges.
Similarly, they were recently acquitted of a money laundering case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Although from the beginning, Professor Yunus was saying that they were framed in baseless cases for ‘harassment’.
On the other hand, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was jailed for seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. But a day after the fall of the government, the President commuted his sentence and ordered his release.
Besides, the BNP Chairperson has also been acquitted of five defamation cases. BNP had been complaining that the cases were ‘false and politically motivated’.
Apart from this, students arrested during the anti-quota and anti-discrimination student movement have been released.
Many leaders and activists of various levels, including the top leaders of BNP, Jamaat and their like-minded parties, who were arrested and imprisoned in various cases in the last decade and a half, including Ghiyas Uddin Al Mamun, who was arrested by the joint forces in 2007, have been released from prison.
In addition, Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani, head of the banned organization Ansarullah Bangla Team, and Sheikh Aslam, the accused in the murder case, have been released on bail on charges of extremism, which is seen to be criticized in various quarters.
Even though there have been various allegations of corruption, murder, human rights violations and other cases against influential people including Sheikh Hasina,
cases are now being filed against those ‘influential’ people of the previous government who were not seen to take legal action against them in the last one and a half decades.
Among them, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already been accused in more than a hundred cases, most of which are murder cases.
Sajib Wazed, Saima Wazed, Sheikh Rehana and many of the family and close relatives of the Awami League president have also been accused.
Also, cases have been filed against almost all top leaders of Awami League, including former ministers and MPs.
Anisul Haque, Tipu Munshi, Dipu Mani, Salman F Rahman, Junaid Ahmad Palak and many others have already been arrested in various cases. Many of them were also assaulted while being taken to court.
The diplomatic passports of previous government ministers and MPs including Sheikh Hasina have been cancelled.
Also, former Director General of National Telecommunication Monitoring Center NTMC retired Major General Ziaul Ahsan, recently former Chairman of Chittagong Port Rear Admiral Mohammad Sohail and many others have been arrested.
However, in some cases, there are allegations that accused persons have been falsely accused in various cases without proper evidence. As a result, in the end, there is concern about whether they will be punished or not.
The commission to investigate the disappearances
is finding many people who were identified by the law enforcement forces during the Awami League period or who went missing after the change of government.
It is known in the narrative of the victims that they were picked up by the members of various intelligence agencies and detained for years on the orders of the previous government.
One such person is former Brigadier General Abdullahil Aman Azmi, son of late Jamaat-e-Islami emir late Ghulam Azam. He was recently released eight years after he went missing on August 23, 2016.
Similarly, Michael Chakma, the organizer of UPDF, a political party based in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, has been released after being missing for more than five years.
In the description of these missing persons, there is a secret detention center called ‘Ainaghare’. Jamaat leader Mir Kashem Ali’s son Ahmed bin Kashem Arman has also been released from the alleged ‘mirror house’.
As a result, as many people as the leaders and activists of various political parties have gone missing during the regime of Sheikh Hasina, their relatives are now hoping.
In response to their demands, the government has recently formed a five-member missing persons investigation commission. Over the past decade and a half, law enforcement agencies have been working to trace victims of abductions or disappearances.
Victims of human rights violations, including disappearances and murders, who previously did not speak publicly about issues, are now speaking out.
As a result, the ‘culture of fear’ that had developed in the past in expressing opinions seems to be slowly eroding.
Anti-corruption stance
After assuming power, the interim government has announced a strict stance against corruption. The Chief Adviser has ordered to ensure that there is no more corruption in any government work.
“We must achieve maximum satisfaction of the people by rooting out corruption and simplifying services. We must ensure the best use of public money,” Prof. Yunus said in a meeting with the secretaries on Wednesday.
He also said, ‘fair competition should be ensured in government purchases. At the same time, existing obstacles should be removed to ensure transparency and accountability.’
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has started an investigation against nearly half a hundred ministers and parliamentarians of the previous Awami League government on allegations of corruption.
Dozens of bureaucrats are being investigated for the same charges. The bank accounts of many people, including the discussed police officer Haroon Or Rashid, have already been seized.
An investigation has been started against the industrial group S Alam Group for allegedly withdrawing about one lakh crore rupees from various banks and smuggling them abroad through fraud and irregularities.
The government has also started activities to bring back the money that has been smuggled abroad from Bangladesh in the last one and a half decades.
The interim government has announced that money embezzlers will be ‘acquired local assets’ and begin work to repatriate money laundered abroad.
“Communications have already been initiated with various foreign agencies seeking assistance in repatriating the funds,” said a statement sent by the Office of the Chief Adviser recently.
Initiatives to reform the financial sector
During the Awami League government, the government has started taking steps to stabilize the banking sector by stating that there has been ‘unprecedented looting’ in the banking sector.
The government has already decided to form a separate banking commission for the sustainable reform of the banking sector. It has been informed that the commission will be constituted very soon.
In addition, the previous boards of directors of several ‘looted’ banks have been dissolved and reconstituted, including Islami Bank, the largest bank in the private sector.
“Stabilizing the banking sector is now our priority, we are taking all necessary measures for this,” Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansoor told BBC Bangla.
In this case, he said that the operation has started to recover the money that has been withdrawn from the bank through fraud and irregularities.
Those who did not return the money will be refunded. In this case no one will be exempted,’ said Mansoor to BBC Bangla.
In this case, it has been informed that the assets of the borrower will be seized if necessary.
On the other hand, to show the true picture of the country’s economy, economist Dr. A committee of 12 members headed by Debapriya Bhattacharya has been formed by the Interwarati government. It is said that they will publish the report within the next three months.
Various changes have been observed in the education sector of Bangladesh due to the changes in the education sector. In the face of the violence of the quota reform movement, the Higher Secondary (HSC) and equivalent examinations were suddenly stopped midway on July 18. After the fall of the government, it was decided that the remaining exams would be held after September 11.
After learning this, a small group of examinees entered the secretariat and started protesting. In such a situation, the exams for the rest of the HSC subjects were canceled on August 20 citing ‘unavoidable reasons’.
How the results will be calculated is not clear. In this situation, there is a possibility of ‘autopass’ in HSC, which many people are criticizing.
Meanwhile, this year, the Awami League government introduced a new curriculum by abolishing the division of departments in the ninth grade, the interim government has decided to re-introduce science, humanities and business education branches by reforming it.
After the ouster of the administrator
Sheikh Hasina in the place of people’s representatives, the interim government replaced the city corporation, municipality, district and upazila mayors and chairmen and appointed administrators within a span of ten days.
It was informed by the government that this decision was taken due to the disruption of civic services as the government-backed public representatives went into hiding or did not go to the council after the pot change.
Mayors and chairmen have been removed from the posts of those four local government institutions, but the government’s policy is different in the case of Union Parishad (UP).
In places where the chairmen are absent, the government has issued circulars to carry out the duties of the panel chairmen.
The Awami League government hastily banned ‘Jamaate Islami Bangladesh’ and their student organization ‘Islami Chhatrashibir’ under Section 18 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, four days before the active Jamaat lost power.
But in the third week of the new government coming to power, the decision changed. Previous notification has been cancelled. As a result, the leaders and workers of the party have become active again. They are seen doing public relations in the neighborhoods of the whole country.
Meanwhile, an organization called ‘Sarda Society’ filed a writ petition in the court demanding the banning of Awami League after leaving power. However, the High Court dismissed the writ petition.
Cancellation of 15th August holiday
After the Awami League took power in 2009, for the past decade and a half, Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s death anniversary, 15th August, has been observed as a mourning day across the country.
A public holiday was also declared on that day as National Day. But with the change of power that too has changed.
A week after taking oath, the interim government decided to cancel the public holiday of August 15 after discussing with various political parties.
After this incident, on August 15, activists and supporters of various political parties and organizations did not allow Awami League leaders and activists to stand at Dhanmondi number 32.
Demonstrations and encirclement of various demands
in the movement of students and the people of Awami League After the fall of the Awami League government, there have been one after another protests and agitations and encirclement of government institutions in various places including Dhaka. The most talked about incident was the protest by members of the disaffiliated Ansar.
About 10,000 members of this paramilitary force blocked the Secretariat all day on August 25, demanding the cancellation of ‘rest system’ and nationalization of jobs.
In the afternoon through discussions, the government announced the cancellation of the ‘rest system’, but they did not stop the movement.
Later, Ansar members clashed with the students, in which more than half a hundred people were injured on both sides.
More than 350 Ansar members arrested in connection with the siege and clashes were arrested and later sent to prison.
After the interim government assumed power, sit-ins and sieges were seen in front of many other important government offices, including the office of the Chief Adviser.
In such a situation, the police later banned meetings and processions around the chief adviser’s office and secretariat.
Also, instructions were given not to hold meetings in the areas adjacent to the Chief Justice’s official residence, Justice Bhavan, High Court premises and Matsyabhaban.
Source:bbc