The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, is facing a wave of defiant flash protests orchestrated by supporters of the banned Awami League, testing the nation's stability as it prepares for pivotal elections in February 2026.
Despite an official ban on all Awami League activities, the party's supporters have taken to organizing spontaneous flash mobs across the capital, Dhaka. These protests are often small, sometimes involving just a handful of young men, while others draw crowds of over a hundred. The demonstrators chant slogans like "Sheikh Hasina is coming!" and "Bangladesh is smiling!" before quickly dispersing into the crowds, a tactic aimed at evading police crackdowns. The scale of this civil disobedience is significant, with one day alone seeing 244 arrests. A senior party leader in hiding claimed at least 20 such processions occurred in a single month. Dhaka police spokesman Md Talebur Rahman confirmed that more than 800 people have been arrested in connection with these demonstrations.
The current political turmoil stems from a massive uprising in July and August 2024, known as the July Revolution. What began as a student-led quota reform movement demanding changes to civil service job allocations quickly escalated into a full-scale anti-government uprising after state security forces launched a violent crackdown. The United Nations human rights office reported that as many as 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown, the vast majority shot by security forces and Awami League associates. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk stated that the "brutal response was a calculated and well-coordinated strategy by the former Government to hold onto power". This violence culminated on August 5, 2024, with Sheikh Hasina's ouster after 15 years in power, forcing her to flee to India.
In the aftermath of the uprising, an interim government led by Muhammad Yunus was formed. The new authorities took decisive action against the former ruling party, banning all activities of the Awami League in May 2025 under the Anti-Terrorism Act. The ban is set to remain in place until the completion of the party's trial under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act for its role in the deadly protest crackdown. Simultaneously, Sheikh Hasina herself is being tried in absentia by Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on charges of crimes against humanity. The prosecution alleges she was the "central figure" in a "widespread, systematic, and deliberately planned" attack on civilians. A key piece of evidence is a leaked audio recording, verified by BBC Eye Investigations, in which Hasina appears to authorize security forces to "use lethal weapons" and to "shoot immediately" wherever they find protesters.
These defiant protests have unnerved the Yunus-led interim government as it oversees the South Asian nation of 170 million people. The press secretary to Yunus accused the "fascists" of turning "reckless" as the country heads towards elections and Hasina's trial progresses. The government has responded by strengthening the monitoring of flash processions and other illegal gatherings. However, the strategy has drawn criticism from international observers. Human Rights Watch condemned the "draconian" ban on the Awami League, warning the interim government against "stuffing the prisons with political opponents or shutting down peaceful dissent". With the Awami League officially outlawed from the upcoming polls, analysts warn that excluding the country's former dominant party risks undermining the election's legitimacy and could perpetuate cycles of retributive violence.