Ireland’s Bangladeshi community celebrates ‘second independence’ after country’s prime minister resigns – The Irish Times

Ireland’s Bangladeshi community breathed a sigh of relief last week when it was announced that the country’s former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, had stepped down and fled to India following a month of violent unrest.

Hundreds of people gathered in the Phoenix Park, and later the Red Cow Hotel, to celebrate what many Bengalis in Ireland saw as a ‘victory’ and a ‘second independence’ for their native country.

Dr Arman Rahman, a senior lecturer at UCD’s medical school, was relieved that Ms Hasina’s 15-year leadership had come to an end, but he was more reserved and cautious in celebrating her sudden resignation.

“I am happy that the regime, but I am also sad that these events have set back such a beautiful country, with so much potential, 20 years,” he said. “If everyone in the world continues to develop their people and their country, why did Bangladesh have to do this?”

Ms Hasina resigned and fled the country after at least 300 people were killed in a violent police crackdown on protests that began early last month.

Student protesters took to the streets to demand an end to the country’s quota system, which reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of freedom fighters who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The protests quickly evolved into broader demonstrations against political corruption, deep inequality and skyrocketing inflation.

Dr Rahman, who has lived in Ireland since 2008, was visiting family in the capital Dhaka when the protests began. He said he “saw right in front of my eyes police indiscriminately firing ammunition at protesting students”.

“I was staying with my sister and her house is close to one of the places where all this happened. For seven days we had no internet or mobile signal, our phones were a piece of junk, they were useless. They did this so that the international media wouldn’t see the police violence. There was a curfew, there were soldiers on the road.”

The family managed to catch a flight back to Ireland when the curfew was briefly lifted. He was not surprised when Ms Hasina resigned on Monday as “millions of people marched on her residence”.

The country had descended into a “mafia state,” he said. “It had become an autocratic government, it was a woman who was in charge for the last 15 years. People were afraid to speak out, you could be jailed if you said something anti-government.”

Arif Bhuiyan, an accountant who has lived in Ireland for more than a decade, says even Bangladeshis living outside the country are afraid to criticise the government.

“For 10 years we were afraid to write anything on social media because we thought about what would happen to our families back home,” he said. “The last few weeks have been really scary and nerve-wracking for all of us in Ireland. When the internet was shut down, Bangladesh was isolated from the whole world. We felt very helpless as a community, there was nothing we could do.”

Dr Mohammad Jinnuraine Jaigirdar, president of the All Bangladeshi Association of Ireland, said most members of the Irish community were still in shock but also felt “a sense of victory” when they heard the news of the sacking.

Every democracy that existed when she first came to power was destroyed by her “tyrannical regime” and “corruption”, said Dr Jaigirdar, who helped organise celebrations in Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Galway this week.

“Everyone is celebrating this victory, people are calling it the second independence,” he said. “I think the situation will calm down now, I don’t think there will be any more big clashes.”

He said he had full confidence in Muhammad Yunus, the man sworn in as head of Bangladesh’s interim government. The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist said they would try to restore peace and prepare for new elections.