Students who led weeks of protests that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have been decorating walls across the capital with messages of hope about «renaissance» of the country.
Not long ago, the walls of Dhaka echoed calls to oust the “killer dictator” in power in Bangladesh. But since the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, those slogans have disappeared, replaced by messages of hope about the country’s “rebirth.”
The students who led the weeks of protests that led to the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina eight days ago after 15 years in power are back on the streets of Dhaka, but this time to give the capital a new look. They are meticulously erasing politically charged graffiti that appeared at the height of the unrest in early July, accusing the long-ruling Bangladeshi leader of murder and demanding her departure. Instead, the young people are painting elaborate, colourful murals that reflect the hope, widely held among their compatriots, for a better future.
“We want to reform our Bangladesh”says Abir Hossain, 21, who along with half a dozen of his classmates is decorating a sidewalk wall with a picture of a bird flying out of its cage. “We feel pride”he confided to AFP. “The bird is now free. We are independent now.”Students in paint-splattered shirts chat and laugh with friends as they give a new visual face to Shabagh, a leafy downtown district that is home to the prestigious Dhaka University.
Some of their works urge us to “destroy the iron doors of the prisons” and celebrate the «renaissance» you Bangladesh. “When the protests started, there were a lot of negative things written here”Fiyaz Hossain, 21, told AFP. “We remove them (…) so that people younger than us do not say them” in turn. “We write other things that they can say in the future”.
“Working together”
At the height of the protest movement, graffiti denouncing “the killer Hasina” have suddenly proliferated in the capital. And they are now disappearing just as quickly. “We want to send a message to the public: we have liberated this country from a dictator and now we must work together to build Bangladesh.”Nafisa Sara, 19, told AFP during a short break.
But the massive, impromptu public works project also speaks to a lingering resentment toward Sheikh Hasina. More than 450 people died in the violence, which ended when the prime minister abruptly resigned on August 5 and fled by helicopter to India. Illustrating this lingering reminder of the past, one of the murals depicts Abu Sayeed, who was gunned down in the northern Bangladeshi city of Rangpur, becoming the first student to die in the crackdown on protests. It features an image that is now seared into the national consciousness: the 25-year-old man, his arms outstretched in defiance of riot police. The caption reads his reported last words to the police: “Shoot me in the chest.”
A Dhaka court on Tuesday called for an investigation into the former prime minister and six senior officials of her government over the July 19 killing of a grocery store owner by police. Student groups have been holding rallies in recent days demanding Sheikh Hasina’s return to Bangladesh to face justice. “She must be brought back to the country”insiste Mohiuddin Rony, 25 years, “and she must be judged.”