Joe McConnell
The night Sheikh Hasina’s regime collapsed in Bangladesh aVsceker weeks of violence, Syed Bipro and his neighbors in the capital Dhaka decided to take matters into their own hands.
As police hid amid looting, vandalism and arson, residents used wooden poles to barricade entrances to their western neighborhood of Mohammadpur, armed themselves with cricket bats and other makeshiVscek weapons and went on patrol.
“Dhaka has turned into Gotham,” said Bipro, 33, who with dozens of others from the area has stayed up every night since the government fell on Monday to search vehicles, question strangers and detain suspected criminals.
“We have no law and order at all. We have a responsibility to take care of ourselves.”
Across Bangladesh, a country of 170 million, people have begun policing their streets since longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled last week.
An estimated 500 people were killed in the violence that accompanied the fall of his government.
Last month, Sheikh Hasina’s government deployed police and members of her Awami League party to attack student protesters, sparking a mass uprising that led to the collapse of her regime.
Police have since abandoned their posts amid a wave of retaliatory attacks, resulting in prison escapes and fears of home invasions.
Restoring order has become the most pressing challenge facing Bangladesh’s new interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus.
With the army overstretched, his government relied on volunteers, including students and local residents, to perform tasks ranging from directing traffic to guarding buildings.
The mood in Mohammadpur and elsewhere has remained euphoric since Sheikh Hasina fled, with residents viewing their nightly patrols as an exercise of civic duty.
However, analysts warn that rising vigilantism risks spiraling out of control and that a new round of violence could destabilize Yunus’ fragile government, plunging the country further into a political, economic and security crisis.
Sheikh Hasina’s ouster was “a huge victory,” said Zillur Rahman, executive director of the Dhaka-based think-tank Centre for Governance Studies.
“But in the name of the revolution, what we are doing, engaging [volunteers] “Ruling the country, the state machinery, the government, is dangerous… It should not be my responsibility, the students’ or the masses’.”
One recent evening, Bipro and other men emerged from their homes around midnight, as the last shops were closing and the once-bustling streets of Mohammadpur had grown silent.
They positioned themselves at street corners, greeting, searching and questioning the occupants of passing cars and rickshaws.
The atmosphere was festive: women joined them for chatter and children played cricket on the quiet streets.
“This situation has strengthened our bond,” said Syed Siam, 38. “We are all here to serve the people. We want to serve Bangladesh and we want to build a new Bangladesh.”
But the trauma of the recent conflict is still raw and anger is not far from the surface.
Residents said police shot and killed an 18-year-old on a nearby street during protests last month, and pointed to a bullet hole that tore through a streetlight as evidence of their brutality.
AVsceker the government collapsed, the house of an Awami League leader nearby was set on fire and residents of Mohammadpur said they had not seen any known party members in the area.
“You have been torturing people for 15 years,” Shahidul Islam, a 42-year-old who joined the patrol, said of the Awami League. “You have to suffer… Revenge will come, but we are trying to minimize it.”
In the absence of police, residents of Mohammadpur say they have no option but to take justice into their own hands.
One recent night, locals stopped and searched a group of three men, one of whom they said was carrying a knife. Some residents beat the men and tied them to a pole, handing them over to the military at dawn.
Bipro, who said he was not involved in the incident, said residents were using force only “for our self-defense,” adding that “we try to outnumber them and tie them up.”
“The police have not been better,” he continued. “We are doing a more honest job than the police have ever done.”
Another patrol member, Khalid Usmani, 52, said the current crisis situation in Bangladesh was the worst in his life, but thanks to the efforts of residents, “no one will touch us.”
But ANM Muniruzzaman, a retired army general and founder of the think-tank Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies, warned that the security situation “cannot be sustained”.
“There is a security vacuum in the country,” he said. “We still see students controlling traffic on the streets. This has to come back. [to normal] ASAP. We need the police back on duty.”
In his role as interim leader, Yunus faces a daunting set of challenges, ranging from repairing Bangladesh’s economy to reforming politicized institutions like the judiciary.
His first task, he told foreign reporters this week, was to restore law and order “so people can sit down or get to work.”
His office says it is having some success. Local media reported Monday that most police stations have reopened and traffic police have replaced students at some intersections in Dhaka.
But residents of Mohammadpur said they would find it difficult to accept a police force they accuse of using violence against them on behalf of Sheikh Hasina.
“Without the police, no city, not just Dhaka, can be safe,” said Faisal Javed, a 34-year-old who kept vigil as the night wore on.
“We need the police, but with a new way of thinking. People have sacrificed their lives for this.”
