Dhaka, Aug. 14 -- "We wanted our rights; we became 'rajakar.' 'Who are you, who am I? Rajakar.' Surely the nation has not forgotten that earth-shattering slogan that rang out deep into the night at Dhaka University just a year ago. In fifteen and a half years, there were extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, murders, secret killings, jailings, torture, and oppression - a steamroller of tyranny, even judicial killings of those with different ideologies. The trauma of that reign of terror still flows in the hearts of the ordinary people of this country.

Through a bloody mass uprising of students and the public, Sheikh Hasina became the only autocratic head of government in Bangladesh's history to be ousted from power and forced ...