On August 5 last year, at the end of the five-week-long #JulyUprising, a horrific massacre took place in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area.
That day, after Sheikh Hasina fled #Bangladesh and the state apparatus collapsed completely, pro-government forces and armed Awami League loyalist goons launched a vicious attack on the students and ordinary citizens in different parts of the city. Jatrabari was one of their key targets.
Hundreds of thousands of students and other ordinary citizens had taken to the streets that day to celebrate the fall of Sheikh Hasina. They got a long-awaited taste of freedom. They believed that after the dictator's fall, they would finally be able to live freely and regain all their long-lost civil rights. But that dream turned bloody very soon.
The army could not decide how to act at that point. The security forces, with their chain of command not working or their discipline having broken down, remained indifferent. Then, some members of the police force opened fire on people indiscriminately, while fleeing with their weapons. Scores of people died on the spot.
In this video, shot at Jatrabari at around 6 pm that day, one can find local people removing bodies one after another. Some of them were still alive, writhing in pain after being shot by the police.
An eyewitness said, "Sounds of gunfire were coming from all around, and the people were screaming for help and crying in pain." The deadly attack on ordinary people was an act of revenge. It was the final savage bite of a defeated dictator.
That massacre at Jatrabari that day will remain as a black spot in the history of the July Uprising of Bangladesh, reminding us time and again that when a dictator falls, its most violent face emerges at the very end of its downfall.