Three hefty men guard each and every action within and without the house of Tureen Afroz, who is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
It is assumed that they are soldiers and are guarding her as cautiously as it is possible. The reason is an attack on her as the country went political haywire following a revolution from students.
When I am in early enough for an interview with her, Tureen is startled to see me suddenly. Her sixteen-year-old daughter goes into hiding, re-enacting that shocking night when the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.
Tureen allows me to get closer to her, and, after she is certain I am who I say I am, she hands me a pair of scissors.
The tool was used by some students who stormed her house at a time her hair was cut off and she was forced to wear hijab. “The students seem to be going out of control. They are misguided missiles, and I worry for the country. We never faced this before, this radicalization, which I am seeing now, and this from young boys,” she said.
It is without doubt one of the most successful student’s movements that has taken place in recent times. It was a young student leader named Abu Sayed who managed to be the first to mobilize such protests against Sheikh Hasina as they protested the quota for a job that the PM wanted to revive, and Abu Sayed was shot dead, but unfortunately his death paved the way and became the momentum of a national movement that put an end to the 15-year rule of the Awami League leader.
Some college students, such as the protester Jannatul Arnob, who studies in a college in Dhaka, survived the attacks instigated by the Awami League government.
He told News18, “I don’t think our work ends now. We should be on the streets. We must pressurize all governments. But we are not political. Other political parties joined us. We never asked for their help.”
