Protests began in Bangladesh last month over a controversial government job-quota system and transformed into nationwide unrest following a harsh crackdown by authorities. Nearly 300 people were killed within weeks in one of the most violent phases of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule.
On July 21, the Supreme Court scaled back the quota, which reserved one-third of government jobs for descendants of 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War veterans.
But anti-protest rhetoric by Sheikh Hasina aided by police crackdown and attacks on protesters by groups affiliated with the ruling Awami League party galvanised a mass movement against the Hasina government.
On August 4, nearly 100 people were killed in a police crackdown, causing outrage. A day later, Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country, ending her 15-year rule.
The anger was such that even the statues of her father, the freedom icon Sheikh Mujeebur Rahman, were toppled and defaced.
Al Jazeera examines the events and the unfolding of Bangladesh’s month-long protest.