The high voltage fluctuations in Bangladesh’s political landscape in the last few weeks give a clear indication of the Joe Biden administration, the USAID and the intelligence conspiracy to unseat the Awami League government in August 2024.

It began several years ago but reached momentum with US Ambassador Peter Haas coordinating all the stakeholders after Biden took office in 2020.

So far, the leaders of the radical Jamaat-Shibir and the Students Against Discrimination (SAD) have given their versions during heated arguments on Facebook.

Then came a senior coordinator, a sacked military officer who was behind the anti-Hasina campaign to demonize her rule. Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami was behind the documentaries All the Prime Minister’s Men and another on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in coordination with US-funded Netra News and DW Bangla.

As rivalry grows, role of Yunus, US embassy, expat journos, Chhatra Shibir in July-August anarchy is exposed

Yes, it was a US-backed army coup on August 5 to recreate 1/11 after 17 years

Yunus administration is working to provide clean chit to terrorists like sacked major Syed Ziaul Haque

Russia’s prediction was right: Biden-Hillary conspired to unseat Sheikh Hasina

The 10-part thread by Zulkarnain Saer Khan Sami is as follows:

🧵 1/10

Seeing the slanging match between Students Against Discrimination (SAD) and Shibir over each party’s contribution to the July uprising and the toppling of the dictator, me and my comrades thought we should set the record straight. Since I live on another continent and had thousand other tasks to do during the movement, the responsibility of coordination on the field fell on the shoulders of my longtime confidante, who is a senior journalist with a leading newspaper in Bangladesh. Here’s how each piece of the jigsaw came together…

On the 26th of July at 10:10 pm, my confidante received a text from a contact asking her if she had a safe house to shelter four protest leaders, who were trying to lose detectives after escaping a hospital. They were stranded in an ambulance near the US embassy. She straightaway called me and that is how I became acutely involved with the students’ activities. I suggested she contact our US embassy contact to see what can be done. She reminds our contact, who is a top official of the US mission in Dhaka, that there is precedence of the US embassy providing shelter, as they did in the case of Imran Ahmed Bhuiyan, the deputy attorney general who was sacked in September 2023 for making a statement that went against the Awami League government’s narrative. Much to her dismay, she was told that would not be possible for several reasons, one of which was that the US mission was without an ambassador and the chargé d’affaires would not risk facing the wrath of the Hasina government. But she will make a few calls to her friends in her personal capacity to see if anyone is interested in helping.

In the meantime, my confidante reached out to her other contacts but in vain. If nothing could be managed, she was willing to host the boys at her place. But about 20 minutes later, the US embassy contact called her back with the good news that the boys could stay at the office of a foreign organisation in Gulshan and one of its top officials would be receiving them. After learning this, I called the WhatsApp number that was provided to my confidante by the contact to inform them of the development. The number was of a student named Salman, who, I found out with the rest of the world on the 23rd of September, was Shadik Kayem, the former president of Shibir’s DU unit. I also contacted my sources in Dhaka to work out the best route for them to reach Gulshan-2 without coming into contact with any police or army. The boys — there were four of them — were put in two rickshaws and safely dropped off at the venue. By 11 pm, the boys were in safety. We were informed that the boys would have to leave the premises by 9 am on Sunday the 28th of July before the office staff clocked in for work.

The next day, which was the 27th of July, Shahidul Alam bhai heard about the boys and took them into his care in the evening. For the next two days, we were under the impression that the boys were safe with him. Meanwhile, Salman called me asking if I could help them book the EMK Centre for a few hours in the next 2-3 days to hold an exhibition on the movement. I asked my confidante to speak to Salman to figure out what they were actually trying to do. She heard Salman’s plan and contacted Shafiqul Alam, who was the bureau chief of AFP then, and the most respected rights activist Rezaur Rahman Lenin to see if they could help with the booking. EMK Centre would not be possible as all bookings needed security clearance and Drik Gallery would not be open to such an event until the 10th of August. Both discouraged the idea of the exhibition, which was conveyed to Salman. The idea was binned right then and there.

🧵 2/10

At 12:09 pm on the 28th of July, my confidante gets a message from Salman asking for a safe house for Abdul Kader. She passed on the message to me and I then reached out to a contact who works for an embassy. He agrees to host Kader at his home in Gulshan, which is a stone’s throw from the US embassy. He also offered to pick Kader up but it had to be done after his office ended at 4 pm. I then asked my confidante to coordinate things. Kader was at Shonir Akhra and it wouldn’t have been possible to go all the way there and return to Gulshan before the curfew started at 6 pm, so Kader was asked to come midway. With this, Tarique Rahman was looped into this student cohort’s developments; he was closely monitoring the events through Mir Helal, the assistant organising secretary of BNP in Chittagong, who was in constant touch with Kader’s host.

At night we learn that the six SAD coordinators — Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, Abu Baker Mojumder and Nusrat Tabassum — have called off the movement from the DB office. We were gobsmacked. At 9:50 pm Salman informed my confidante that the movement would continue, with Kader, Hannan, Rifat and Mahin taking things forward. I suggested the four new leaders record a video message from where they are and I asked my confidante to coordinate things on the ground. Salman sent over the message that the new batch of SAD leaders would be reading out announcing the continuation of the movement and asked my confidante to quickly edit it. She asked me to edit it, while she translated the message into English. Both messages were sent to Salman by 11:04 pm but we could not find the communiqué anywhere. At 11:35 pm, Salman informed my confidante that their think-tank was debating whether the one-point demand, i.e. Hasina’s resignation, would be announced now instead of the nine-point demand of the students. In the end, the students decided to stick to the nine-point demand for now. The final version of the communiqué was put on the SAD letterhead and circulated everywhere at midnight. Kader recorded the video message in both English and Bangla from a teleprompter downloaded from the Internet by his host. I shared the video message on my social media channels. The other three also posted their video messages.

🧵 3/10

The next day, which is the 29th of July, at 4:50 pm, my confidante gets a call from Salman asking if a safe house could be arranged for Hannan, Rifat, Mahin and Mehedi, who later turned out to be Abdul Gaffar Jisun of Chhatra Dol’s Jahangirnagar unit. They were sat in a North End Coffee Roasters branch in Gulshan and needed to move to a safe zone ASAP as the curfew would start in an hour. My confidante frenetically called her friends and work contacts to see if anyone would be brave enough to host the boys for a couple of hours until she arranged a place for them to spend the night. At one point, she even considered sending the boys to her office, which remained outside the purview of law enforcement agencies. However, she didn’t have to resort to this step as our friends Fahim Ahmed and Andaleeb Chowdhury agreed to host the boys at their home in Banani. By then, North End had closed for the day and the boys took shelter at a coaching centre in Banani. She then coordinated things with Andaleeb, who went to pick up the boys from their hiding spot. Andaleeb is a lecturer at a private university and she was closely involved with the quota movement from the 18th of July, when the private university students joined in. The boys immediately feel safe around her and she informs my confidante that they could stay the night. Andaleeb’s husband Fahim is the CEO of a prominent company and my confidante was adamant that she would not be jeopardising our friend’s career and the company’s future by involving them any further in this movement. Despite their protests, she told the couple that the boys would be moved the next morning. So off she starts with her phone calls to find a safe house for the boys. She asked Kader’s host if he could accommodate four more boys in his flat but he didn’t have room. However, he agreed to help her find a shelter. At 7:29 pm, he informs my confidante that he has found a safe house in Old Dhaka. However, transporting the boys from Banani to Old Dhaka would be quite the challenge amid the heightened security situation, so she reached out to Reza to do the deed. And he agreed. In the meantime, I arranged a backup safe house for them in Mirpur DOHS. Owahid Alam, who I know through BNP people, agreed to play host, and I passed on his contact details to my confidante in case she needed his help.

On the morning of 30th July, Reza arrives at Fahim and Andaleeb’s home in Banani to move the boys to the next safe house in Old Dhaka. Once there, Reza felt the location, which was a stone’s throw from the court, was not secure enough. The boys were not happy with the condition of the living quarters and threw a hissy fit. They wanted to go back to Fahim and Andaleeb’s, which my confidante was dead against. Still, the boys called Andaleeb and she even asked them to come back. But my confidante was firm on this. She asked Owahid Alam if his offer of a safe house was still valid and he was beyond gracious. His details were passed on to Reza, who then dropped the boys off at the safe house, which happens to be the headquarters of Owahid Alam’s buying house. The flat was very secure and the amenities met the boys’ standards, which the spot in Old Dhaka didn’t. Reza also downloaded premium versions of VPN on the boys’ phones using my confidante’s international credit card.

🧵 4/10

While my confidante was coordinating things with Reza, she also received a text from Salman at 2:13 pm asking for ideas on what programme they could announce for the following day. At 3:24 pm, Salman asks her opinion on staging nationwide protests outside courts. She loves the idea and also suggests staging protests on the periphery of campuses, which were blocked off then. At 4:54 pm, Salman asked my confidante to talk to Hannan and get him to announce this programme from their Facebook pages as Hannan was considering distributing leaflets as the following day’s programme. She talks to Hannan and he agrees. At 5:32 pm, Salman sends the Bangla communiqué to my confidante for vetting and asks her to translate it into English. By evening the programme was announced. In the meantime, Hannan asked my confidante if she could arrange fresh clothes and lungis for them and sent their measurements. She then hands over money to her coworker who lives in Mirpur and asks him to buy clothes and drop them off at Mirpur DOHS. Since the curfew had already started by then, all stores had shut for the day. Her coworker then asks one of his friends who knows a clothing store proprietor to sneakily reopen his store. The clothes were picked up by Owahid Alam from a designated spot in Mirpur the following morning.

At 1:31 pm on the 31st of July, Salman texts my confidante to inform the incredible response to that day’s programme. This text was followed up by a suggestion of announcing a “soft” programme for the following day, such as distributing leaflets. She strictly told Salman not to entertain the idea as it is an environmentally unfriendly move and being Gen-Z they should be more conscious of such things. She also discouraged announcing a soft programme for the following day as it would slow down the momentum of the movement. She instead suggests demonstrating outside the UN office the following day demanding an independent investigation by the organisation into the massacre. Salman then gets back to her saying that the others want a soft programme for the following day and that the demonstration outside the UN building could be done the day after. The day after was the weekend, so it would be pointless. If they had to demonstrate outside the UN building, it had to be done on the following day, which was a Thursday. Salman said he would bounce it with the others and get back to her. He also asked if she could arrange a safe house for two more SAD leaders and she agreed.

🧵 5/10

Meanwhile, she gets a call from Kader’s host informing her that Nahid’s guru has advised him to slow down the movement and pivot it to one for reopening the university halls. Who was Nahid’s guru? Some guy named Mahfuj Abdullah, who now goes by the name Mahfuj Alam. She then calls up Shafiqul Alam to enquire about Mahfuj Abdullah. Turns out Shafiqul Alam knew this Mahfuj Abdullah very well; he had managed jobs for Mahfuj at two Bangla dailies, where he couldn’t last for long. She asks him to have a word with Mahfuj so that he keeps quiet and doesn’t divert the movement. Shafiqul Alam calls her back three hours later to let her know that Mahfuj has been warned not to be a roadblock to this movement. She also asks Salman about this Mahfuj and strictly tells him not to slow down the movement. Salman informs her that there are many stakeholders in this movement and reaching a consensus among all parties has been a pain. And yet, for as long as he is alive, the movement will continue with gusto — he is willing to give his life for the cause and has been working like a dog. He then tells her that he wrote the students’ nine-point demand and went to media houses in person to relay it during the Internet blackout. But, the following day’s programme has to be a soft one as the boys are rather tired and need a little breather. He asks her for a catchy title and hashtag for the programme. She asks Fahim if he could help with this and he sends her a bunch of hashtags and titles. Since the students were set on a soft programme for that day, she suggested a countrywide candlelight vigil for the dead at 9 pm as that would make for powerful, moving imagery. Salman also loves the idea and says he will discuss it with others. And yet at 8:56 pm, Salman says the following day’s programme would be called Remembering the Heroes and it would entail a host of cultural activities — and no candlelight vigil. And for Saturday they were planning a March for Campus programme to get the authorities to reopen schools, colleges and universities. She talks to Kader’s host, who is equally livid. My confidante then scolds Salman for taking the momentum off the movement with this programme. If they continue to focus on their campus-centric demand, their movement will go nowhere. The public support will also tail off as it is not possible to live in this heightened sense of intensity for long. Sheikh Hasina will regroup and will hunt each and every one of them down. And that she was not endangering her friends’ lives and careers just so they could get their quota. At 11:15 pm, Salman asks her if she could sit down with all the student leaders in a Zoom meeting and tell them these things. She agrees but the meeting never happens.

🧵 6/10

On the 1st of August, at 11:36 am, Salman texted my confidante with photos of the demonstration they were staging at the campus. He also asks her to shortlist the hashtags from Fahim for sharing in their student groups. At 4:23 pm, my confidante again scolds Salman via text seeing the public reaction to the Remembering the Heroes programme. She also tells him that the bloodshed will continue for as long as they press for their self-centred nine-point demand. And it’s absurd that they were demanding justice from the murderer. “It is very easy for her to play you guys,” she texted Salman. At 4:45 pm, Salman called back my confidante and pleaded with her not to abandon them at this point and that he would be following her directions here onwards.

Around 5 pm Hannan calls my confidante asking her to arrange transport and another safe house for them. Why so? Because the entire state machinery was looking for him — and not Riffat, Mahin or Kader — and he didn’t feel safe in the Mirpur DOHS flat. She asks him if he has disclosed his location to anyone and he says he hasn’t. In that case, she told him that he couldn’t have been in a safer place anywhere in Bangladesh. Within minutes of her phone call with Hannan, she gets another call from Reza. Hannan also called him making the same request. Turns out they are panicking because they have lost the house key and could not reach Owahid Alam on the phone. Reza again called to inform that the situation had been neutralised: the keys were in their bedside drawer and Owahid Alam, who went out of Dhaka that day, could be reached on the phone. It must be mentioned that Owahid Alam was the most responsible and gracious host: he bought the boys two weeks’ groceries, told them they could help themselves to the brand new clothes lying at his buying house office and instructed the cleaner not to come so that the boys’ safety was not compromised.

The six coordinators were released that evening from DB custody and Hasnat and Sarjis put up ambiguous FB posts, which irritated my confidante. She discusses the matter with her coworker who helped in sourcing clothes for Hannan & co. and he argues with her that this is not the time to demand Hasina’s resignation. She then discusses the issue with Shafiqul Alam, who tells her that she should pipe down now as the students’ leaders are out and they will take a call on this. He maintains that Hasina will fall sooner or later — there is no coming back from this. She discusses this with Fahim, who seemed equally frustrated that the call for Hasina’s resignation has not come yet. Kader’s host agreed that the one-point demand must be made soon.

Then at 10:24 pm, Salman sent my confidante a photo of a candlelight vigil outside the East West University in Rampura. After that, he sends her a news link of police cracking down on a candlelight vigil in Narayanganj. He then continues to send photos of candlelight vigils taking place all over the country.

🧵 7/10

At 12:50 pm on the 2nd of August, my confidante sends Salman the following text: “Without asking for her resignation, you guys are on a suicide mission.” Salman immediately replies that they are on nine-point demand now but a meeting is scheduled later in the day where the matter of one-point demand will be discussed. She again tells Salman that the one-point demand must be fast-tracked as Hasina apologists have started a global campaign that Bangladesh has no alternative to her. Salman again replies that he is trying to do that but there are lots of internal problems, which he is trying to solve first — and that Sarjis, Hasnat are “dalals”. Those two are on the last warning and if they overstep they would be asked to leave the platform. At 2:08 pm, Salman shares the link to a video posted by Hannan that asks Hasina to accept the students’ nine-point demand to which my confidante says: “This was a very selfish video.” She further writes: “Say Hasina accepts your nine-point demand, but what about all those non-student lives that have been lost? Do you guys not want justice for their deaths? So many children and professionals lost their lives and so many people have become permanently disabled.” Salman assures her that he will press all these points in their meeting later in the day. He then shares another video posted by Mahin that focuses on the same points as Hannan. At 2:36 pm, Salman informs my confidante that Sarjis and Hasnat have called off SAD’s programme for the day and asks her to talk to Kader and Hannan about the one-point demand. He will also connect my confidante with Asif Mahmud, who was also looking for a safe house. My confidante tells Salman that she would arrange a safe house for Asif only if they make the one-point demand. They just needed to make the official call for Hasina’s resignation and the public would take it forward. She discusses providing the safe house with Kader’s host, who points out that since Asif was released from DB custody the previous day he is being tailed off by plainclothes policemen. Putting him in a safe house now would blow the cover of everyone involved, so he advised her to convey to Asif that he was safe where he was.

Meanwhile, my confidante gets the following text from Fahim: Today was the important 2-week/15-day mark. Things start to set in place after two weeks (one way or another). So today is the day. What reason did they give for not making the call for Hasina to step down? Today was Jummah + the Jamaat-Shibir ban.” She shared this with me and I suggest she meet with Kader’s host and Owahid Alam to discuss the way forward.

🧵 8/10

At 4 pm, she arrives at Kader’s host’s apartment and the three call me. Owahid Alam was hesitant, whereas the other two were adamant that the demand for Hasina’s resignation must come now. I then offered to get on-the-ground information from my sources to work out if that day was opportune for such a monumental announcement. At 5 pm, I connected them with an intelligence source who said the call must come today after Maghrib prayers for maximum impact. We do not have long as Hasina’s forces are regrouping to quash the movement. Within minutes, my confidante gets a call from Shafiqul Alam telling her it’s time to make the call for Hasina’s resignation seeing the bloodshed in Khulna and Uttara earlier in the day; he also shared links of the call already being made by Anu Mohammad and the artists earlier in the day. Her coworker who was against the one-point demand just the previous day also called to tell her that it was time. Fahim also texts her that it is time to make the call. She, Kader’s host and Owahid Alam decide to get Kader, Hannan, Mahin and Rifat to make the one-point demand. Technically, the four of them were still SAD’s leaders as the six coordinators who were released from the DB custody the previous day have not officially rejoined the movement. They discussed this with Kader, who agreed to do this provided Salman, Hannan, Rifat and Mahin were on board too. They call Salman, who says he’s ready to provide backing on the field once the call is made. My confidante asked her coworker to write the message that Kader, Hannan, Rifat and Mahin would be reading out. Within 15 minutes he sent a draft that was shared with me, Fahim and Shafiqul Alam for feedback. A few minor edits were made by me, Fahim and Owahid Alam and the draft was good to go. By then, the call for Maghrib prayers was blasting on the speakers and Owahid Alam headed out for the prayers and was off-grid for a good 30 minutes or so and our plan was delayed.

Kader also informs Rifat, Hannan and Mahin of the plan and the three seem shaky. Seeing their jitteriness, Kader also dithers and asks to speak with BNP and Jamaat leadership to get assurance from them that the two would be supporting SAD’s call for Hasina’s resignation. My three comrades assure the boys that once they make the call, the general public will take the movement forward. Their call would just be a formality, like passing the baton on to the general public. The people are already fed up with her and they just want to drive her away. Besides, many other associations have already made the call. Since the movement started with them, they should nicely wrap it up with the announcement. This seemed to have reassured them and they were ready to roll. Ten minutes later, Hannan calls my confidante with a fresh demand from their side, and with it, starts a series of bargaining that goes on for the entire evening. At one point, they demand that their families be moved to an embassy before they make the one-point demand. Kader’s host explained to them that it was not possible at that moment, but it could be a possibility once they demand Hasina’s resignation as the foreign missions would then be concerned about their safety. This seems to have convinced the trio. But they call back again after ten minutes raising objections to the communiqué prepared for them. Their issue was that it did not give a roadmap for how the state would function after Hasina’s resignation. My confidante explains that it is not their concern as they are still students or fresh graduates. They neither have the life experience nor the educational qualifications to dictate the course for 170 million people, they should let the adults take control of things. Again, this seemed to have convinced the trio of Hannan, Rifat and Mahin. But they call back again after ten minutes. At this point, my confidante lost her patience and checked out.

🧵 9/10

The others called me and asked to add a line that the post-Hasina Bangladesh would be run by representatives of political parties, university teachers, civil society, armed forces and students. I agreed to add this line to the communiqué. But they again call. They want the students to be mentioned first and before the other stakeholders. It was then that I also lost my patience as it was past 11 pm and there was no point making the announcement at that hour of the day. I must definitively state that the boys were not coerced in any way to make the one-point demand and yet Hannan went around telling people that I threatened him, Rifat and Mahin on behalf of the army, who were too eager to take control of the state. There was no such intent — all we wanted was to get rid of Hasina and her mafia gang. We had no other agenda, which is why none of us have come forward post-5th of August to get our stake in the government by overselling our contributions. All of us remain where we were before SAD’s quota movement began — with no material improvement in our lives other than the peace and satisfaction that Hasina and her goons were gone. If anything, it was Salman with whom my confidante spoke very harshly many times, but not with the four SAD leaders.

Funnily enough, SAD calls for a programme at Shaheed Minar the next day, i.e. the 3rd of August, at 3 pm. At 1:05 pm, Hannan called my confidante asking her permission to move to another safe house arranged by Nahid for them. Over at Shaheed Minar at 3 pm, Nahid made the call for Hasina’s resignation. By then, it didn’t matter, the streets of Dhaka and elsewhere were alive with slogans calling for Hasina to step down. We learn from Kader afterwards that Nahid, Mahfuj, Asif and the rest of the SAD coordinators had no intention of going for the one-point demand anytime soon. They were compelled to do so because of our desperation the previous day. Nahid wanted the limelight on himself — he didn’t want Kader, Hannan, Rifat and Mahin to have that recognition of calling for Hasina’s resignation. Kader particularly found it amusing that Hannan blocked Kader, Rifat and Mahin from making the call the previous evening as he did not want to do it without his “Nahid bhai” but his Nahid bhai made the call that day at Shaheed Minar without Hannan next to him. SAD also called for a non-cooperation movement the following day, a move that did not sit nicely with the foreign missions, as my confidante learnt from her contacts.

At 7:56 pm, Salman shares a list of demands from SAD with my confidante seeking her input. She advises Salman that it would be best if SAD blends in with the general public and does not make any separate demands other than Hasina’s resignation. If they make separate demands now, they would come across as self-serving and power-hungry and people will start to doubt their intentions. Their lives have just started, they have their entire lives ahead of them to come to power. They should just get back to their normal lives after Hasina is gone and get life experience before considering running for office. Salman agrees with her and says they would not be making any separate demands and would just be sticking to the one point. Salman then asks her what should be their next move and she suggests surrounding Gonobhaban and all ministers’ residences. She also explains to him how the Hasina/Awami League still enjoyed international support as none from the West asked for her resignation yet or an independent investigation; all of them said that all deaths must be investigated and she should enter into a dialogue with the protestors. It’s like they are asking the murderer to investigate the murder. Salman asks her what can be done now to change the international community’s mind and she tells him to just focus on getting Hasina out. At 9:21 pm, Salman informs her of their plan to gather at 12 spots in the city from 10 am and march towards Gonobhaban from there.

🧵 10/10

Meanwhile, I heard from my sources that the Awami League had planned to unleash about 15,000 of their men in Dhaka on the 4th of August. This was conveyed to Salman via my confidante.

On the 4th of August, the plan to surround Gonobhaban failed to take off as armed Awami League men were plying the streets and causing a bloodbath. By mid-day, Asif and Nahid had announced SAD’s programmes for the next two days and that infuriated my confidante. While sat at Comptoirs Richards in Gulshan, my confidante called Owahid Alam at 2:16 pm to express her frustration that SAD intends to continue this way for the next few days and they do not have a plan to surround the Gonobhaban anytime soon. She asked Owahid Alam to convey the message to the opposition political parties to take charge of the situation and not leave it to SAD. He assures her that something will be done; Hasina’s days as the prime minister are numbered. At 3:20 pm, she calls Salman expressing her frustration with Asif’s announcement and tells her that she’s checking out of this movement. Salman pleads with her not to quit at this stage and that he will see what can be done. At 3:25 pm, I sent my confidante a message from my intel source that Awami League was “regrouping, SAD must bring forward their March to Dhaka programme by a day, no more time can be wasted, people want that programme tomorrow”. She forwarded this message to both Reza and Owahid Alam. Reza immediately calls and tells her to calm down. She tells him that she’s out of this movement. He asks her what she wants and she has one demand: a Gonobhaban sit-in starting tomorrow until she resigns. He asks her to calm down as there are lots of factors that must align for this drastic step to take place. At 3:52 pm, Reza texts her saying: “Done. Happy?” How did he manage it? He asked Ehasan Mahmood — who was with Nahid, Asif, Mahfuj and Baker from the onset — to get BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir to talk to Nahid. At 5:21 pm, Asif announced on his Facebook page that the March to Dhaka programme had been brought forward by a day to the 5th of August.

All SAD coordinators then started posting their video message announcing the March to Dhaka programme but we wanted Kader’s one to be a cut above the rest. We wanted him to sound calm, composed, honourable and just. My confidante once again asked her coworker to write the draft of Kader’s message in Bangla, which she translated into English. I shared Kader’s English and Bengla video messages on my social media channels. At 11:11 pm, I got on a group call with my confidante, Fahim and Salman to work out the logistics for the Gonobhaban sit-in programme the next day. Reza and Owahid Alam went to the flat of Kader’s host for further planning.

On the morning of 5th August, my confidante was shaken to hear from Fahim that police had gotten inside Bashundhara and were firing inside university campuses. She starts receiving texts from others that the situation is looking grim everywhere else. At 11:32 am, she gets a text from Owahid Alam that says that Hasina won’t be allowed to stay in power beyond today. “We are ready for the final showdown,” he wrote. At 1:35 pm, Salman calls my confidante to find out if there are any updates and she tells him to get everyone out. At 1:59 pm, he again texts her saying they were all headed towards Gonobhaban. At 2:30 pm, my confidante gets a text from Shafiqul Alam informing that Hasina and Rehana have fled Gonobhaban. Soon after, Salman calls her with tears of joy gushing out of his voice. He again calls her in the early hours of 6th August to let her know that Muhammad Yunus has agreed to helm the interim government — he just got off a call with the Nobel Laureate.