New protests by students and activists have forced a wave of high-profile resignations in Bangladesh, including that of the country's chief justice. Dhaka journalist Tajul Islam tells DW that students are on a mission to remove all those linked to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina from positions of power — and gives new insights about everyday life in the new Bangladesh.
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00:00Tajul Islam is a journalist with the Daily Business Standard newspaper in
00:04Dhaka. Welcome. Do you expect more resignations from people who held
00:09high-ranking positions under the old regime? Yeah, definitely. Like right now
00:17the students are talking about anyone and the students are
00:23demanding resignation of anyone who was previously linked to the Chekha
00:28government. So it is very likely that they will get to like some other people
00:35and ask for their resignation as well, especially if they're really high
00:39officials who served Chekha during her regime. And is the Awami League, the
00:45party of the ousted Prime Minister, excluded from all political decisions
00:50now? As of now, I did not see their involvement in the formation of the
00:59interim government, which is kind of not really unexpected because they
01:05are the party that just got ousted. Their leader just resigned, but we'll
01:13have to wait to see if some of them decide to come back or if some of them
01:17decide to be a part of the next election. And as we reported
01:25extensively this week, Chekha Sinha fled the country. There have been expectations
01:31that she could return at some stage. What about the return though of so many of
01:37the Hindu minority people who've been fleeing the country or trying to get out
01:42out of the country because of mob violence?
01:48Well, in case of, we have received some reports of attack on Hindu communities.
01:55I have a very few reports. And some of those reports mentioned that those
02:00attacks were from Hindu community, but they were also like ill men. They used
02:05to work for Awami League. That's only a few of them. All sorts of violence are
02:11not expected in any situation. Our new interim government chief, he already
02:17called on to stop all the violence if people have faith on him. And right now,
02:23as the situation stands now, students are protecting in many places of the
02:30country. They are trying to protect the Hindu minorities from getting attacked.
02:34They are protecting the temples and all the other religious places, including
02:41Hindu and all the other religions.
02:43So students are stepping in where police are usually active because they've been
02:49on strike. But tell me, how safe is Bangladesh? How safe are the streets
02:55right now for any religion or minority?
02:59Well, we had a few instances of robbers attacking some of the houses inside
03:08Dhaka and outside Dhaka, right after Sheikh Hasina fled. After the fleeing
03:14of Sheikh Hasina, it created a vacuum. We had zero law enforcement and everything.
03:20The situation in the country could have gone really worse. But fortunately,
03:27fortunately, it stopped at some point because the students stepped in. For
03:32example, I can talk about myself. When I went to sleep last night or the night
03:38before that, I had to stay on alert that there might be a robbery attack on my
03:42own home. But then I heard the students, they were chanting slogans. They were
03:48walking right in front of my house and they were announcing that we are here.
03:53We are here to protect you. This area is currently safe. We will be on the street
03:57all night long, making sure that there are no robberies. And the students have
04:02already created multiple volunteer groups on WhatsApp and other platforms
04:06where they communicate with each other, where they communicate with the people
04:10who live in those areas. And they respond. They send a team anywhere where
04:18there's a possible tension of a robbery or anything like that.
04:23We'll have to leave it there. Journalist Tanjul Islam, thank you for bringing us
04:27the latest there on developments in Bangladesh.