- Yes, I know that the people of Bangladesh threw out Hasina. I am a Bangladeshi myself .
- The US may have had an interest in removing Hasina, but it was a spontaneous movement. Hasina had the opportunity to solve it easily by accepting the demand for quota reform (which she eventually did, but after hundreds of people were killed). It was her ego and stubbornness that caused her downfall. There was zero threat to her reign even three weeks ago.
- No, the army did not bring her down. The army top brass were loyal to her. The current army chief is her cousin's husband. Other important posts, like the head of DGFI, were all occupied by people extremely loyal to her. In fact, even after she fled, those generals wanted to stage a coup in favor of AL.
- Yes, some goons are killing/attacking minorities—that is true. As a Bangladeshi Muslim, I am extremely ashamed of it. This is not the first time this has happened. But I want to add two things:a) It is not just the minorities; miscreants are taking advantage of the absence of police (who are fighting for their own survival) to commit all sorts of looting and crimes. My friend's father, a Muslim with no affiliation to AL, saw his resort vandalized completely yesterday by some miscreants in a border town.b) The student leaders are trying to mobilize their network to guard the minorities, especially their places of worship. This gives me some hope because, for the first time, many members of the majority are actively coming to the aid of minorities (in previous occasions, they have been guilty of mostly remaining silent).
- Yes, more than 150 people have been killed. In most cases, this has happened because some groups attacked police and AL members. Police, fearing for their survival, tried to shoot them down. Most of the deaths have resulted from vengeance (mob killing law enforcement members or law enforcement killing members of the mob to save themselves). Again, this is extremely unfortunate. But you have to remember that the police indiscriminately killed many innocent people in the last two weeks—so the level of hatred some people have developed for them is unfathomable and is resulting in medieval barbarism.
- The students are not directing those peaceful celebrations. They have been repeatedly making pleas for restraint, no acts of revenge, and preserving property. But it is not possible for them to control the actions of miscreants everywhere. Most general people, who were jubilant after Hasina's fall, are very frustrated and sad with the anarchy. Everyone is hoping that the interim government will be able to bring order to the country.
On a different note, I am seeing a lot of skepticism in this thread about the success of this revolution. I think that skepticism is justified. The students are trying their best to ensure that the success does not get hijacked by the BNP Jamaat goons. For most general people, there is absolutely no difference between AL and BNP, and they are afraid that they have thrown out one devil only to be replaced by another hungry devil who didn't have any opportunity to steal in the last 15 years.
So in the near future, this revolution may end up being a failure. However, there will be one enduring success of this revolution for sure—that is, the people of Bangladesh have regained their confidence that, no matter how powerful the tyrant, they still have the power to throw them out if they can come together. Sometimes the cost may be very high, like it was this time in terms of the number of people killed, but ultimately people will prevail.