Dhaka, March 7 -- The July-August Uprising we witnessed in Bangladesh in 2024, was a cataclysmic event upturned countless lives, apart from the estimated 1400 killed, and many thousands injured, of whom many lost limbs. The casualties overwhelmingly came from a young age group - college-going or graduate students, also high school students, and their peers from the madrasah system, although many were not students.

To the extent that it was a revolution, resembling many post-revolutionary or post-uprising states, the legacy of the disorderly transition represented by the then-prime minister fleeing the country was bound to be very messy. For years, members of the Awami League had warned of the disaster that awaited them, if they ever lost...