Bloody July: My Story of the Bangladesh Uprising

 "Razakar, Razakar"—a word that changed the entire scenario.

The month of July 2024 in Bangladesh will forever be remembered as one of the bloodiest chapters in the nation's history. What began as a peaceful student protest over job quotas quickly escalated into a nationwide event, claiming over 1000+ lives and forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down after 15 years in power. In this blog, I state my personal experience during these rough times, as the streets of Bangladesh became battlegrounds for freedom.

Like many other students, I also took part in the Bloody July movement. On July 16, I participated in the peaceful protest at BRAC University, where we organized our movement. However, on July 18, as planned, we gathered again at the main gate of BRAC University to continue the protest. 

Unfortunately, this day at 11 o'clock the situation took a violent turn. A group of police officers fired back at us, using rubber bullets and tear gas. One of my friends was hit by a rubber bullet, and I can assure you, it hits really hard. After that moment, everyone scattered in panic, and we quickly ran back into the university, searching for medical aid. Fortunately, the university had some first-aid supplies, but that was not sufficient for the number of people injured. Also everyone’s eyes were burning from the tear gas, including mine, and the pain was unbearable. At one point, I even thought I had lost my vision due to the tear gas. 

Afterwards, other university students also gathered at the BRAC University main gate, and all the BRAC students exited the campus. Observing the increasing crowd, the police escaped the area and began patrolling from above using a helicopter. This is the incident of 18th July.

From July 19th, the government imposed a strict curfew with a ‘shoot-on-sight’ order following deadly protests. Despite this, students and other people continued to risk their lives for a better nation. On July 20th, I also went out. I was at Rampura Bridge when some BGB guards fired at the crowd. This time, it wasn’t rubber bullets, it was real bullet from a semi-automatic or possibly automatic rifle which hits a boy standing just inches away from me suddenly fell, and I didn’t even realize how quickly it happened. We somehow managed to get him, along with some others who were injured, and took them to the nearest hospital. 

All of the incidents of that day hit me hard, making me realize that life is very uncertain. After all that happened, I still went out on some days during the curfew. During the curfew, I talked to my friends through my mobile phone, which made me realize how much Bangladesh's SIM companies charge. I hadn’t been aware of the cost because we usually communicated over the internet.

On August 5th, I woke up to the sound of shotguns. I saw 20-30 police officers outside my building. To provide some context, I later heard that at 9:30 AM, a few students had gathered at East West University. Seeing these students, a large group of police officers attacked them and followed them. Some of the students (around 8-10, including 2-3 girls) pursued refuge in our building, but some police officers noticed this and gathered around 20-30 officers in front of our building.

Returning to the present, I was awake by the sound of gunfire. The police officers were extremely aggressive, ordering our watchman to open the gate quickly. Then they entered the building and searched every flat, looking for the students who had taken refuge. When they knocked on my door and entered my flat, they were searching for those students. They asked about me, but my father managed to handle the situation. I saw that they were carrying shotguns, and some even had AKs, although I doubt they had permission to use them.

After the search, they left my flat but eventually found the students on the 7th floor. The person who had sheltered them was beaten by the police, and the students were taken away while being beaten with sticks. They also broke the CCTV cameras, took the hard drive containing footage, and even shot at the lift because we had provided shelter to the students. Additionally, they took our building's watchman with them for allowing the students to hide.

After these events, we all witnessed what happened in Bangladesh. We achieved our second win. I also participated in the event at Bijoy march at TSC and then went to the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban.