The record is stark.
On August 5, 2024, various Islamist groups—backed by elements of the military—toppled the Awami League (AL) government led by Sheikh Hasina. Forced into exile without resigning, Hasina remains, in this account, the elected and legitimate prime minister. Three days later, on August 8, the authorities installed an extra-constitutional interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus as “Chief Adviser,” despite Bangladesh’s constitution recognizing no such office—no “Adviser,” “Advisor,” or “Chief Adviser.” The interim government was expected to hold elections promptly and hand power to an elected authority. No vote has been held. Critics contend Dr. Yunus governs as a proxy for radical Islamist groups and the military. This is, by every meaningful description, an army-backed and Islamist-backed regime.
“This is, by every meaningful description, an army‑backed and Islamist‑backed regime.”
Violence as Method, Not Accident
Between July 15 and August 5, 2024, anti-Hasina demonstrators attacked police stations nationwide. The Awami League alleges nearly 3,200 police were killed; the Yunus administration officially acknowledges 44 police fatalities. Demonstrators attacked AL leaders, activists, and supporters, killing people indiscriminately; clashes left many demonstrators dead. Large mobs assaulted jails and key installations, wrecking public property. The AL calls Hasina’s ouster a well-planned “design and conspiracy.” Some advisers and movement leaders later publicly admitted carrying out attacks and killings to overthrow the government in a planned manner.
Dr. Yunus himself called it “meticulously designed.” Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative during the 79th UN General Assembly on September 24, 2024, he said: “It is an amazingly meticulously designed thing. It is not something that suddenly came. Very well designed. Even the leadership doesn’t know who the leaders are.” Allegations of external financing followed. In late February 2025, President Donald Trump told U.S. governors at the White House that a $29 million U.S.-funded project to “strengthen Bangladesh’s political landscape” went to a little-known firm with just two employees. After Hasina’s ouster, a U.S. delegation led by Brent Neiman, Deputy Under Secretary at the Treasury Department, visited Dr. Yunus. USAID pledged an additional $202 million as part of a broader 2021–2026 commitment of about $1 billion. How that aid was allocated remains unclear; further support has been cited from U.S. NGOs, including the Clinton Global Initiative.
“It is an amazingly meticulously designed thing… Even the leadership doesn’t know who the leaders are.” —Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Sept. 24, 2024)
A Human Rights Free-Fall
Widespread abuses followed. Ain O Salish Kendra recorded at least 318 people—children among them—killed between August 5 and 8, 2024. The Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) documented 2,010 incidents of murder, rape, and other violence from August 4 to 20, with continued attacks on minority homes and businesses. Extremist vigilantes and student groups patrolled streets, detaining suspected AL supporters and non-Muslims; torture in custody was reported. Some ISIS- and Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists—including convicts from the 2015 Avijit Roy murder case—were released, deepening a culture of impunity. BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Hefazat-e-Islam activists—alongside Students Against Discrimination—organized mobs allegedly backed by the Yunus administration; security-force presence was repeatedly observed. On June 26, 2025, the Chief Adviser’s press secretary, Shafiqul Alam, defended such groups as “pressure groups”: “Those you call a mob — I call them pressure groups.”
BHBCUC later reported 2,442 incidents between August 2024 and June 2025: killings, assaults, arson, and desecration of worship sites. Temples, homes, and shops were vandalized. Several Christian villages in Chattogram and Naogaon were burned. The Ahmadiyya community endured violent assaults. Extremists attacked Sufi shrines and Hindu temples; secular cultural spaces were targeted, with access to the Lalon shrine restricted after Islamist pressure.
On August 8, 2024, thousands of minority Hindus—including women and children—gathered at border points in Thakurgaon and Panchagarh seeking refuge in India after communal attackers looted their homes and businesses and threatened to kill them. In the months that followed, tens of thousands of Hindus protested nationwide for protection and the withdrawal of sedition cases against community leaders. Attacks on Hindus continued to be reported almost daily.
Erasing Memory, Punishing Teachers
From August 5, 2024, schools and colleges saw waves of resignations and public humiliations of teachers, including reports of individuals tied to trees. Roughly 70 minority teachers were forced out in August–September 2024; some were reinstated after public criticism, but the purges continued. Civil servants and police deemed loyal to the previous government were demoted or arrested. On August 5, 2024, mobs attacked the Mujibnagar Freedom Fighter Memorial in Meherpur—reportedly smashing hundreds of statues—and set fire to the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32. Statues and memorials nationwide were defaced: temples, libraries, and monuments honoring Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Rabindranath Tagore, Lalon Shah, Begum Rokeya, and others were vandalized, looted, or destroyed.
“Statues and memorials were defaced nationwide… monuments honoring Bangabandhu, Tagore, Lalon, Begum Rokeya, and others were vandalized or destroyed.”
Industry Under Siege, Economy in Retreat
The private sector was targeted too. The Gazi Tyres factory was looted and burned from August 5–8, 2024; only a few bodies were recovered, and a district probe listed 182 people—mostly workers—missing. Other industrial sites were torched. Businesspeople and industrialists aligned with the AL faced systematic assaults, extortion, and arson against homes, businesses, and factories; several large establishments were set ablaze. Multiple industrialists—including Golam Dastagir Gazi of Gazi Tyres and Salman F. Rahman of Beximco Group—were detained and remain incarcerated. Many investors reported fearing mob attacks, extortion, and police harassment; numerous fled abroad.
Before his arrest on August 1, 2025, anti-discrimination movement leader Jane Alam Apu released a 35-minute video admitting that he and his associates—backed by interim government advisers and senior police officials—had orchestrated nationwide extortion and mob violence. He specifically named adviser Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan as their leader. The video has gone viral. Since August 2024, factory shutdowns, job losses, and shrinking trade have weighed heavily on the economy.
Criminalizing Opposition, Capturing the Courts
On May 10, 2025, the interim authorities banned the Awami League—the party that led the Liberation War and has governed, in total, for roughly 24 years. Earlier, on August 10, 2024, BNP- and Jamaat-e-Islami-aligned lawyers and interim-backed student groups stormed the Supreme Court demanding the resignations of the chief justice and other Supreme Court judges; resignations followed. Numerous legal professionals associated with the former AL government were detained. Political detainees reported frequent assaults, including inside court premises. On July 24, 2025, authorities arrested 82-year-old former Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque in a murder case.
Symbolic sites remained targets
On February 5, 2025, a “bulldozer rally” again attacked the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi 32; for more than a week, the historic building was burned and bulldozed as crowds gathered on the ruins.
Mass Arrests and Live Fire
Since the changeover, tens of thousands of AL activists and supporters have been held without trial; at least 155 former Members of Parliament have been arrested. Prominent artists, economists, university teachers, journalists, and civil-society leaders are either imprisoned or in hiding for safety since the removal of the AL government. On May 20, 2025, The Daily Star, citing police headquarters data, reported more than 48,400 arrests in a single month. At least 41 police officers were also arrested for alleged loyalty to Sheikh Hasina’s government. On July 16, 2025, army and police opened fire in Gopalganj, killing at least five pro-AL demonstrators and injuring many more.
Silencing the Press
Media repression intensified. Police- and army-backed mobs targeted outlets; at least three satellite TV stations were torched, and many newsrooms were vandalized and looted in August 2024. Pro-BNP, pro–Jamaat-e-Islami, and pro-Yunus activists, allegedly backed by the interim government, seized multiple outlets after Hasina’s ouster; the trend continued when Islamist activists occupied the offices of the daily Janakantha on August 2, 2025, installing their own caretakers. Editors and senior journalists fled or were compelled to resign in August 2024, with Hindu senior journalists reportedly singled out. Since August 2024, at least 266 journalists have faced criminal proceedings—mostly for murder or attempted murder—with at least 17 arrested by May 3, 2025.
Media houses, book-fair stalls, and cultural venues were attacked; reporters described threats, surveillance, and assaults. On World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2025, the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) reported that 640 journalists were “targeted” between August 2024 and March 2025. On June 25, 2025, Dhaka Tribune reporter Khandaker Shah Alam was murdered after reporting on corruption. On August 7, 2025, journalist Asaduzzaman Tuhin was killed with machete blows in Gazipur after filming armed men chasing a young man; the day before, reporter Anwar Hossain was seriously injured by brick blows in the same city while investigating extortion. From October 29 to November 7, 2024, the Press Information Department revoked official accreditation for 167 journalists, barring many from government venues. Access to the Bangladesh Secretariat has been restricted for independent reporters; only government-aligned journalists with temporary passes are routinely admitted.
“On World Press Freedom Day, RRAG reported 640 journalists ‘targeted’ between August 2024 and March 2025.”
The Verdict
Human-rights monitors warn that political instability, communal tension, and institutional collapse are gutting the rule of law. On August 8, 2024, Human Rights Watch’s Meenakshi Ganguly described rioters burning historical structures, targeting Awami League members, and violently attacking Hindus—torching homes, vandalizing temples, and looting shops—with additional attacks on the Ahmadiyya Muslim community and ethnic minorities. On August 7, 2024, Firstpost reported bodies of at least 29 Awami League leaders, associates, and family members recovered nationwide after attacks and clashes.
Bangladesh deserves elections, the rule of law, and dignity—not a “meticulously designed” demolition of its constitutional order. The facts cataloged here are not debris of chaos; they are evidence. On October 14, 2024, the interim government issued a blanket indemnity order barring any cases, arrests, or prosecutions of participants in the violent uprising for acts committed between July 15 and August 8, 2024. That order stripped away the masks: the architects of the violence brand AL supporters “fascists” even as the record points to their own authoritarianism.
