Tales from a dystopia

Contains my account of the events unfolding in the country from 14th to 27th July.

27/07/24

Mother is coming back today. I told her to come back within curfew time, had a small ruckus about it. The protest has no leaders. If there was, the uprising would have been successful. Cause Prothom alo has said, Awami League is in shambles. They are in panic mode. They have admitted that handling the situation has been a failure. Their leaders are understanding their dire situation. They have shot themselves on the foot, both feet actually. If the regime changes, none of them will survive, they know this. Some of them have left the country. There was a fight in the central committee. There are calls for changes within the party.

None of the ministers make any sense. They act like 10 iq children. Even their leader acts like one. How come the armed forces working for these people? Throughout the history of Bangladesh, they have taken control as soon as they saw an opportunity. This is a huge opportunity. They are silent. Why? Have they been completely tamed by Awami League? Have their posts been infiltrated? I have no idea. How did the Bangladesh army lose its power grabbing ambition lol. They have ruled this country for almost 17+ years. Everyone should read Bangladesh: A legacy of blood.

The legacy of blood has not ended, and the current generation is bearing the burden. No revolutions in Bangladesh witnessed these many losses in so little time. I cannot forget the faces of the people who died. I cannot withstand the fear of being raided.

They come to me in my sleep, in my nightmares. Having Arnab around, and with no internet, I was at least talking regularly, which greatly calmed me. But now I do not talk, only message and scroll FB. This is greatly hurting my psychology I think. We are in the long game, and I cannot lose sanity. 

Applied for e-passport. I was not sure of leaving in 2025. But it now looks like I will give it a whole hearted try. BDBcol has been postponed. They picked up all the major organizers now.

Will we forget? Will we forget? I cannot tolerate if we forget. 

RAID! Close to my home. Told security guard to say that there is no one at this building who is a student or bachelor. As I am writing this, I hear helicopter noises in close proximity. What the hell are they unleashing upon common people? This fear mongering will not force everyone to hide. They forget which people they are doing this to. 

আসছে ফাগুনে আমরা দ্বিগুণ হব 

Long live July Uprising

26/07/24

All tyrants must know, you cannot kill an uprising with force. It never happened, and it never will happen. It can take time, but the ghosts will always haunt you for life, the dead will haunt you, remember. 

Mother left for Pirojpur and Arnab left for Sylhet. I will be alone for two days if Gobinda dada does not come. Hoping to survive. 

The protest has been suppressed. The tyrants are having a victory toast I think. But for how long can they tolerate it. All night I hear about raids here, raids there. They check phones, they pick up people. They picked up the leaders of the protest from hospital. WHICH HUMAN RIGHTS SUPPORT THIS? The international community is watching right? God is watching right? Is there anyone left to save us.

সব কিছু নষ্টদের অধিকারে চলে গেছে 

25/07/24

How can you go back to normal after seeing all these? BAL has lost it. They were threatened and hence they have unleashed this. They never have been this much weak. So many losses. The relatives were posting about the people who died. You cannot control your emotions after seeing such posts. A fire is raging, it is still hidden. They don’t realize, but the fire will rise at any time and engulf everything. They are crying about the assets they lost. Bloody hell. 200 people have died according to official tolls. 200! The real figure may be multiple times that! And they are crying about metro rail and BTV. 

Mother went to Motijheel without telling me. When she returned, I took the car and went to Dhanmondi. Met with Yasin bhai and Shafiq bhai, but stayed for like 15 minutes as the curfew break was about to be over. 

At night I hear about raids, raids happen all around me. And I receive disturbing tales of forceful disappearances. People being picked up after their phones are checked. I am shaken. I am angry. Yet, I am powerless. All I can do is share a couple of things on Facebook. Apart from that, I can do nothing. I am agitated. There is no justice in this country. 

It is true. 

God has left this place a long time ago.

24/07/24

Blackout day 6

Internet restored across a few places. But I do not receive any. Baba went to Chittagong today, thanks to Farin’s father booking a flight for him. I am grateful to Arpita, Shakil, Miraj, Sian, Raad, Farin, Momen for regularly keeping in touch. I heard Fahmid bhai is losing sanity. So, I asked him to come to Bosila, but he denied. I dont know how he is surviving alone, without internet. Mobin and Araf are having a grand time at Lalbagh I heard, they got access to FTP and downloading a lot of stuff. Galib joined them. So did Jitesh bhai and Rahat bhai. In the midst of ongoing raids, they were singing loud at 4AM, we realized as Arnab called them. 

আমি জাহান্নামের আগুনে বসিয়া হাসি পুষ্পের হাসি has never been more true.

The Internet is restored at night. I lost my smile as soon as the internet came on.

23/07/24

Blackout day 5

News of the internet being opened at night is circulating. Quota protesters have given 8 points, after meeting with 3 ministers. Another set of protesters have given 9 points. 9 points include PM saying sorry and Quader, Palak and Noufel resigning from both ministry and party. But 9 points have been suppressed by the media. Media killed the 9 points and highlighted the highly censored 8 points. Meanwhile, the death toll is mounting.

We receive no news throughout the day due to the blackout. It is only in the morning, we receive news through newspapers. We are taking two papers a day, Daily star is always present, the bangla paper is prothom alo or kaler kontho or jugantor. 

We went on the river bank and stayed there for a couple of minutes.

22/07/24

Blackout day 4

Life has circled to a routine. Wake up at 11am. Call people. Know about different news reports from them, give your own news reports.  Ensure everyone is safe.

We started to become delirious from this time. We were becoming hysterical. It was me and Arnab now, and we were continuously circling between panic and fear and hysteria. Many people we called were continuously laughing. Everyone was running low on sanity. 

Everyone was stuck at home. This was exerting a critical toll on our psychology. After all this, we need to undergo psychotherapy, for what we have seen and enduring. 

Scenes of Rooftop:

Chopper flies overhead, its sound is something we are used to now. 

I am getting accustomed to this life without internet. Well, I am used to this life actually, I was used to this life for a very long time. While most of my friends used internet and WiFi for a long time, I did not. It was only when I reached Dhaka that I finally got internet.

We went out around and had fries from Kazi farms

21/07/24

Blackout day 3

Newspapers tell of death. Death was everywhere. The count was not stopping. What did the tv channels show? Everything is normal, the situation is under army control. The court hearing of the quota was held in the morning. 93% merit and 7% quota was allocated. BUT IS IT ABOUT QUOTA ANYMORE?

They have to pay a price for this one day. 

20/07/24

Blackout day 2

Protests were still ongoing in the midst of curfew. Heard there were deaths everywhere. Started taking newspapers. Newspapers already put the deathtoll at more than 100. THE BASTARDS at the TV WERE SPITTING BULLSHIT PROPAGANDA. “Situation is normal, no clashes, army helping people” They were crying about vandalisation, not about people losing their lives. These are people, each 100 of them had a life, had people who loved them, had people they look after. Who gives someone the right to end it at an instant? Remember these bootlickers, who put asset losses above the lives of people. Later on newspapers even wrote, that those who were injured even suffered threats in hospitals and needed to be discharged early. 3 of the leaders of the protest were missing. They were picked up by DB. Nahid was tortured, the rest two were drugged. Nahid found himself in Purbachal 300 feet the next day, blindfolded. He somehow crawled with all the pain of torture, and found a cng, which took him to Banasree.

Arpita told, there were still clashes in Banasree. Police was firing continuously. How can you not be restless in moments like this. Heard Muhaimeen went to the protest in Uttara, where several people died. Army open fired at Beribadh more, close to my house. I only realized it after internet was opened later. 

19/07/24

Blackout day 1

We had to adapt to this new normal. There was no news of anything. The news channels were crying of vandalization of the previous day and telling everything was alright today. But it was not! Everyone I called told me that there were serious clashes everywhere. Arpita told of continous gunfight in Banasree. Fahmid told of a gunfight in Uttara. Miraj went to a protest in Tangail, and they shot tearshell at them. They were using helicopters to shoot people!! None of this came in the media, None. I spent the entire day in panic, as I continuously tried to call everyone I knew, to see if they were okay. 

In the afternoon, we went to the rooftop. It was utter chaos. There were continuous gunfire sounds, non stop. And we saw with our own eyes, how the helicopter came and shot from above. Smokes were rising from everywhere in the sky. Perhaps this is the closest to a warzone I have ever been.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/784xez68Jav8AYWY8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NjConiJSFVCBx16b6

News came of a jail being broken at Narsingdi. They deployed army and gave curfew from midnight.

18/07/24

Arnab was panicking the entire night before. As he was seeing Chankharpul was being raided, he went to Lalbagh. Even there he was panicking. So I told him to come to my home, first thing in the morning, with Mobin and Araf. 

He arrived early in the morning. Everything was normal in the morning. We went to sleep after coming home. Woke up at 12 pm. Heard Arpita was going to BRACU, there was a massive clash there, AND mobile internet was turned off. It was an all out catastrophe, it seemed. It was not possible to reach over the phone. I was panicking. Farin went to the Bashundhara gate protest. Never before have I felt so powerless and helpless. I wanted to do something, boy I wanted to do something. But I could not DO ANYTHING. 

As the public universities were shutted, each and every institutions, PRIVATE, SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES TOOK TO THE STREET. IT was the revolution of our lifetime. And the tyrants unleashed hell. It was direct fire, they were not even trying to protect anyone. It was rounds after rounds, they used APCS, mounted guns, helicopters, everything everything. Never before I have seen such brutal crackdown on students. Even the world may not have witnessed such crackdown, after Tianamen massacre. Will the world remember the massacre of 18th July? Will my fellow countrymen remember the massacre of 18th July. Tried to reach Arpita multiple times through phone call and she finally recieved, thank god. It was trauma all around, people injured, crying. They even fired inside the gate! 

But they were brave. Students fought back! Police had to fall back. They ran like rats using helicopters. But the losses, as I was hearing, were heavy. All around the country it was heavy. Too many losses, too many lives were being lost. Police was showing no mercy. There were many places being vandalized and torched in Dhaka and elsewhere.

I was powerless. All I was capable of doing the entire day was boycotting the Blockchain olympiad, an event directly endorsed by Palak, suar. 

And finally at 9:30 pm, they turned it off. They turned the thing keeping the revolution going, the Internet. We were in complete communication blackout.  

17/07/24

Students were supposed to celebrate the kicking out of BCL from halls this day. After all, spring has finally arrived in DU! Who knew it would be this short lived. Instead of celebrating, we had to count bodies, 2-3-4…. The count was not stopping. A gayebana janaja was supposed to be held at VC chattor at 1pm. Adil and Shabil went there.  Who THE FUCK fires at a janaja. Yet police did! POLICE did! How can we forget that police fired at a janaja! Infront of VC chottor. Then they started clearing students out of the halls. VC declared DU closed. He let the bastards inside. POLICE fired at students inside halls. Shabil went inside Bijoy ekattor. He had to climb the wall and retreat from Nilkhet. The fired indiscriminately even at journalists. Clashes happened throughout the country, everywhere, everywhere. 

Jahangirnagar university was liberated at first from BCL and police. However, they again came at night. Students fought the entire night, and kicked them out again. Mahib was filiming everything from the front line. I was really worried about his safety. Multiple people around him faced gunshot wounds. Police were saying they did not fire open rounds!

They liberated Jahangirnagar in the morning of 17th August, the savages were kicked out again. Revolution was happening everywhere, everywhere, Barisal university, Begum Rokeya, SUST.

BUT EVERY SLAVE VCS declared universities closed. And let the police enter at night. God knows what the students faced, as each and every public university student was kicked out of their halls. Using IITSEC, we gave an email to all faculties placing some demands from the students. 

Raids at Changkharpul. At 3AM. They were going door to door and searching for DU students. Hasib was scared. We tried to be there for him. He video called in the batch group while the raid was going on. Fortunately, they did not enter his room. Although we heard sounds of someone questioning. He said it was another block of his flat.  I was trembling. I called Kabir sir at 3:30 am. Never have I called a faculty member this late at night. He assured that he will call Hasib and Momin, and he did.

16/07/24

Uprising spread to all the universities across the country. Jahangirnagar Rajshahi Begum Rokeya in Rangpur, Barisal university. Protests spread everywhere, and so did clashes. It was not just BCL. Police accompanied BCL, they unleashed upon the students. It was only tear gas and rubber bullets at first. But they soon turned to pellets , sound grenades and then, LIVE AMMUNATION! PEOPLE WERE DYING. First news came of Abu Sayed. He stood brave infront of police. And he was shot!!! At point blank range! Infront of everyone! He was shot! We know who shot him, the entire nation saw the entire thing. Police filed an FIR for this incident, (Shot by miscreants). Justice in Bangladesh has never been a bigger joke.

All around there were calls to end chatro rajniti forever from university. Me and my batchmates also decided to take some steps. My friends went to university. They were clashing with BCL and police. Tear gas everywhere they were saying. All day was spent being concerned about their well being. I called Galib at 4pm. All I heard was gunshots, people screaming, and shouting. He said, “Jhamelar moddhe asi, phone rakh” Called Araf afterwards. Araf was forever calm. “Pera nai, amra thik asi. Jhamela shesh hole chole jabo” It was this moment my insecurities started to creep in. My debts started to pile up. I have to do something. What can I do? WHAT CAN WE DO? I was doing nothing. Nothing can ever make up for what they were facing out there.

I called Banik and asked him to make an emergency fund to help anyone who is injured. We collected a decent amount from the batch. We posted from IITSEC condemning the attacks on the previous day, and only then I realized how powerful this organization can be. I hope I can be a strong decision maker in the future. Yasin bhais post in IIT family finally caused our teachers to crawl out of their holes and inquire about student. 

15/07/24

Students gathered around TSC. It was supposed to be a peaceful gathering, protesting the words uttered by PM. Obaidul Quader however said, “BCL will see to the matter.” They gathered goons and tokais from all over the country and unleashed them among the students. It was horrible, horrible sight. They were beating even the female students, EVEN FEMALE STUDENTS! With rod and sticks. Many sustained head injuries. Police was a bystander, they didnot do anything! My juniors were hurt, people I knew were hurt, people I knew were admitted in hospital. Bastards even went to inside the hospital to beat them. 

The sky was red!

All protests have a tipping point. This could not be tolerated anymore. The night marked students uprising in halls. It was the halls of females at first, they were kicking out Chhatra league cunts. Then slowly it started in the male halls.

14/07/24

Stayed home all day. Went to Suhrawardy with Baba for treatment. Returned home. Blockade going all around. Baba went to DMC to see someone. The PM said insulting stuff to quota protesters, indirectly labeling quota protesters as razakars. The Bengal Spring started.

It was the women's halls at first, Begum Rokeya, at night they broke the main gate and started protesting. The other halls joined them. All of Dhaka university was chanting, “Ami ke tumi ke? Rajakar, Rajakar.”

13/07/24

This was the last day I went to a distant place, Bashundhara. Baba became sick after coming from Pirojpur. Went to Mitford at 2am. To buy saline. Mobin and Araf came back with me