Ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to Death amid Student-Led Protests over Job Quotas

A Bangladesh tribunal on Wednesday sentenced opposition leader and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death for crimes against humanity in connection with the deadly crackdown on protests against the government last year. Tried in absentia, she has been living in exile in India since she fled amidst the crisis. Her former interior minister and police chief were further condemned in the verdict for ordering lethal force against protesters.

These demonstrations, which began largely because of widespread anger among young Bangladeshis against their highly controversial government quota system, turned into political unrest in the country.  30 percent of civil service jobs had been reserved since the independence war in 1971 for veterans and their descendants in a policy increasingly seen as cronyism favoring the supporters of Hasina's Awami League party. 

In 2024, against the backdrop of rising unemployment, students and young graduates went on mass protests to demand a merit-based system. Demonstrations engulfed the whole country, having started from university campuses where protesters mobilized on social media. Unrest spirals into violent clashes between police, ruling party supporters, and demonstrators; hundreds injured, over 100 reported dead. After the interim government came to power, Bangladesh drastically cut down the quotas to just 5% of the government jobs and now they are available only for descendants of veterans. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh's new leader Muhammad Yunus has been working on stabilizing the economy through increasing foreign reserves and obtaining loans from the IMF. Hitherto, political instability and violence remain huge challenges. Hasina denies the charges and has labeled the tribunal politically motivated. None except former police chief Abdullah al-Mamun appeared in the courtroom to hear sentencing. The court outlined the extent of violence during the crackdown, which United Nations reports confirm resulted in hundreds of deaths. The judgment coincided with rallies by Hasina's critics in Dhaka amid tight security. The diplomatic tensions remain high as Bangladesh has requested her extradition from India, which so far has refused that demand. This quota reduction is far from the structural reforms that the leaders of the student protests have continued to demand in pursuit of justice over the lives lost. What began as a movement for fairness in government hiring quickly turned into a fundamental challenge against systemic corruption and the absence of meritocracy. 

While the agitation underlines the powerful role that Bangladesh's youth have played so far in shaping the nation's political and social future, yet this is a turning point and speaks to the bigger reckoning taking place in Bangladesh between legacy and reform, privilege and merit, repression and democratic aspiration, led in no small measure by a generation of students unwilling to settle for less than justice and fairness.