Some of the students whose protests kick-started a revolution in Bangladesh last year and prompted the ouster of the troubled country’s authoritarian leader, Sheikh Hasina, are now taking a more conventional route to pursue their vision for the country: They have started a political party.
At a rally in Dhaka, the capital, on Friday, some of the former student leaders announced the creation of the National Citizens Party, which they said would pursue a “centrist” political ideology. Although membership is open to all, the party will target students, thousands of whom joined the 2024 protests but many of whom have since returned to their normal lives.
Leading the new party will be Nahid Islam, a 27-year-old university graduate who helped lead the call for Ms. Hasina’s resignation after a 15-year rule during which democratic freedoms eroded amid allegations of corruption and rigged elections.
After Ms. Hasina’s ouster, Mr. Islam joined the interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, which seeks to restore order in Bangladesh and pave the way for free and fair elections. The country has not set a date, but Mr. Yunus has said a vote could happen by December. Mr. Islam resigned from his role in the government this week to set up the new party.
The transition for the country of more than 170 million people has been chaotic. The interim authorities have struggled to control lawlessness, including revenge attacks on political opponents, robbery and intimidation of religious minorities.
Bangladesh’s police force has been in disarray, after it became a target of the uprising for having carried out the toppled leader’s crackdown. In the chaos immediately after Ms. Hasina’s departure, dozens of police officers were killed by angry mobs, and others abandoned their duties. While the army stepped in to help maintain order, rebuilding the law enforcement has been a difficult task.
Last week, Bangladesh’s army chief raised concerns about the continuing chaos.
“I am warning you now, so later you can’t say that I didn’t,” General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a speech. “If you cannot set aside your differences and work together, if you keep blaming and fighting each other, the independence and sovereignty of this country will be at risk.”
The hope is that taking a political route will allow student voices to be heard as Bangladesh tries to build a robust democracy. An umbrella group called Students Against Discrimination, which represented most of the protesters, will continue as a nonpolitical entity.
Earlier discussions about a student political party had drawn criticism from a rival. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which became the country’s largest political group after the effective disappearance of Ms. Hasina’s Awami League, complained the new party had an unfair advantage since its leader had been part of the interim government.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the BNP leader, said he welcomed the formation of a student party, “but that does not mean you can stay in the government, enjoy all government benefits, and form your party at the same time.”
Two other student leaders who had joined the interim government, Mahfuj Alam and Asif Mahmud, have said they will remain in their posts and not join the National Citizens Party. Mr. Mahmud recently said that they couldn’t be affiliated with any political party since they were helping oversee the democratic transition.