On the afternoon of Monday, August 5, Bangladesh’s 5-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left the country, probably never to return again. News of her tendering resignation and preparing to leave Dhaka were just pouring in when a video surfaced on social media, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding father, getting down from a vehicle and embarking on a helicopter.
After weeks of violent protests in Bangladesh that started as student protests against a court-ordered quota in government jobs for the descendants of freedom fighters, after hundreds of deaths, rampant violence, and murders of police personnel at the hands of violent protestors operated by Jamat-e-Islami, Hasina probably knew her time was up when the Army turned against her.
As violent protestors filled the streets of Dhaka, marching towards the PM’s residence and the Jatiya Sangshad Bhavan, the national parliament, cards were falling fast. Just after 2 pm, ahead of reports of an address by the military chief, news came in that Sheikh Hasina has left Dhaka.
Within minutes, hundreds of protestors swarmed into the Ganobhavan, the official residence of the Prime Minister in Bangladesh. Those people were not there to protest, they were there to loot, vandalise and display the state of anarchy that has finally won in Bangladesh.
Ganabhaban, the official residence of Bangladesh PM Hasina stormed by protestors pic.twitter.com/aMbp3KIBEn
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) August 5, 2024
The pictures soon turned into a macabre dance of human depravity. Men, unhinged, uncontrollable men, with a strange glee on their faces, leaping with joy as they stormed the residence of their Prime Minister, only to barge into her rooms, loot her wardrobe, vandalise her furniture, and show to the whole world how they defile and destroy the last symbols of a shattered democracy. Dhaka fell on August 5.
SHOCKING🚨: Radicals looted bra, fish, saree, blouse, even dustbins from #Banglade's PM Sheikh Hasina's residence.
— DW Samachar (@dwsamachar) August 5, 2024
One rioter even wore a saree and They have looted utensils from her kitchen.#BangladeshViolence #SheikhHasina #SheikhMujiburRahman #viral… pic.twitter.com/qIa3VAuxk7
Among the visuals of looted furniture, stolen sarees, and men ransacking the PM’s residence, one video stood out. A man had stolen undergarments, bras from the PM’s residence, and a mad crowd was going berserk at the sight of the undergarments. They had hoisted the man on their shoulders, and hooting, cheering as he displayed the bras as trophies.
Just look at these radical vulture like protestors they are cheering for the guy who stole the 'Bra' of PM Sheikh Hasina.
— Pooja Sangwan 🇮🇳 (@ThePerilousGirl) August 5, 2024
They are carrying him on their shoulders. Shameless!🤮#SheikhHasina #Bangladesh https://t.co/NodqOuHVnQ pic.twitter.com/5s26DhE9gX
The mad crowd cheering for the stolen bras from a woman Prime Minister’s residence was not just the shameless display of anarchy that has befallen Bangladesh, it was a macabre announcement of what awaited the woman and her family had she stayed.
The crowd was not there to mark the triumph of the people’s revolution against the elected leader, they were there to loot, rape and lynch. Had they found Hasina or any of her family members at Ganobhavan, or anywhere in Dhaka, they would have dragged them out, and lynched them to death in all the revolutionary fury, and just as it happens everywhere when law and order fails, the women would have been raped first.
The men hooting and cheering, waving the bras as trophy were declaring their naked intention, that they didn’t just want Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, they wanted her humiliated and hurt. The Islamist ideology that has fanned and mobilised these protests hates democracy and equality, it prides itself in keeping women under its boots. Islamists loathe a strong democratic leader who prioritises growth and development over radical Islam, they hate it even more when that leader is a woman.
