Protesters say the “July Nationwide Constitution”, named after the nationwide rebellion that began final July, doesn’t tackle their issues.
Printed On 17 Oct 2025
Police have fired tear gasoline and used grenades and batons to disperse protesters gathered exterior Bangladesh’s nationwide Parliament complicated to precise dissatisfaction with the interim authorities’s new political constitution.
The constitution was drafted greater than a yr after Gen Z demonstrations that led to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s removal.
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The clashes broke out after a number of hundred folks, who described themselves as these whose protests toppled Hasina, began demonstrating on Friday. They had been expressing anger that their issues had not been addressed within the new constitution, regardless of their family members dying throughout the mass uprisings towards Hasina, who fled to exile in India.
Some protesters vandalised a police automobile and makeshift tents, whereas others clashed with troopers and safety officers within the capital Dhaka. Witnesses mentioned a number of folks had been injured.
The interim authorities, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has invited the nation’s predominant political events to signal a brand new political constitution to pave the way in which for quite a lot of political reforms.
The “July Nationwide Constitution”, named after the nationwide uprisings that began final July, outlines a roadmap for constitutional amendments, authorized modifications and the enactment of recent legal guidelines.
A Nationwide Consensus Fee fashioned by the Yunus authorities ready the constitution after a collection of talks with the most important political events, besides Hasina’s Awami League celebration.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and eight like-minded events mentioned they might signal the constitution.
Hasina’s rule noticed widespread human rights abuses, together with mass detentions and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
Protests towards Hasina’s rule started on July 1, 2024, with university students calling for changes to a quota system for public sector jobs. They culminated on August 5, 2024, when hundreds of protesters stormed Hasina’s palace as she escaped by helicopter to India, the place she stays in exile.
She has defied court orders to attend her ongoing trial on expenses amounting to crimes towards humanity. The United Nations has mentioned as much as 1,400 folks might have been killed within the weeks-long rebellion final yr.
Yunus has promised to carry the following nationwide election in February, earlier than the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million folks celebrates the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. However questions stay whether or not the election could be inclusive with out Hasina’s celebration and its allies within the race.
The nation’s largest Islamist celebration, Jamaat-e-Islami, has remained undecided about signing the constitution, whereas a newly-formed student-led celebration, Nationwide Citizen Celebration, mentioned it might not participate.
