An Unbending Leader’s Crackdown Rains Carnage on Bangladesh

For those watching from outside, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh presents a compelling story. She is the world’s longest-serving female head of government, a secular Muslim in colorful saris who has fought Islamic militancy, lifted millions out of poverty and deftly kept both India and China at her side.

But this seeming success has come at a heavy cost. Over her 15 years at the helm, Ms. Hasina has deeply entrenched her authority and divided this nation of 170 million people. Those who kissed the ring were rewarded with patronage, power and impunity. Dissenters were met with crackdowns, endless legal entanglement and imprisonment.

The sustained protests that have convulsed Bangladesh this month are a backlash against Ms. Hasina’s formula for power: absolute, disconnected and entitled. Her bloody crackdown, which has left at least 150 people dead, has grown into the biggest challenge ever to her dominance, just months after she steamrolled to a fourth consecutive term as prime minister.

It is a crisis largely of her own making, analysts said. The student-led protests started as a peaceful expression of opposition to quotas that reserve sought-after government jobs for specific groups. The violent response to the protests by government security forces and vigilantes from Ms. Hasina’s party sent the country to the verge of anarchy. A curfew has been imposed. The military patrols the streets. The internet is blocked, and phone calls are severely restricted.

Even in a country with an ample history of deadly political violence, Ms. Hasina’s crackdown has led to what diplomats and analysts have called atrocities that are unprecedented in Bangladesh in recent decades. To many Bangladeshis, a line has now been crossed, and anger at the sheer carnage seems unlikely to diminish soon.