The events of July–August 2024 have added a dark chapter to the nation’s history, and the true nature of that chapter is now slowly coming into focus. A just student movement was cynically exploited to deliberately plunge the country into chaos, to murder police officers, and to stain the streets with the blood of ordinary citizens. The strings behind this operation are no longer hidden. And at the final curtain of this entire drama, it is now clear who benefited most: Muhammad Yunus and his collaborators, who overthrew an elected government and installed their own illegal rule.
Students took to the streets demanding quota reform. Their demands were reasonable, and their movement was peaceful. Then suddenly the movement was infiltrated by snipers, targeted killings, and unprecedented violence. Police officers were murdered one after another, and the blame was shifted onto the government. Who was behind this violence? Intelligence sources now indicate that this was a meticulously planned conspiracy, with links on one end to Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, on the other to Islamist militant groups like Jamaat, and in between a network of rogue retired military officers.
The name Colonel Abdul Haq is now repeatedly surfacing. Secret meetings were held centered around the Rawaa Club, where plans were made on how to turn a peaceful movement into a bloodbath and how to kill law enforcement officers to weaken the government. He is being identified as the chief architect of that plan. Nearly fifty retired and dismissed military officers were involved in this operation. Those who had sworn to serve the country instead conspired against it. What could be more tragic than that?
And the most astonishing part is this: who ultimately benefited from the conspiracy? Muhammad Yunus. A man who built international fame by profiting from usurious moneylending that exploits the blood of the poor suddenly became the country’s “Chief Adviser.” No election, no public mandate, no constitutional legitimacy. He was installed through a carefully orchestrated massacre and coup. What else can you call this? It is a clear coup, a clear conspiracy, and a clear illegal seizure of power.
Much has been said at home and abroad about Yunus’s Grameen Bank model. But the reality is that this model is a sophisticated system of exploiting the poor under the guise of interest. The burden of microcredit interest traps the poor in lifelong debt. The vast empire built on this exploitation belongs to Yunus himself. Winning the Nobel Prize turned him into the “savior of the poor,” but in reality he is nothing more than a moneylender who grew rich by sucking the blood of the poor.
This man is now the country’s chief adviser. And what is his government doing? Have the students, in whose name this entire drama was staged, actually gained anything? Has quota reform happened? Has education improved? Instead, the economy is collapsing, law and order have deteriorated, attacks on minorities have increased, and militancy is rising. Yunus and his so-called government are busy entrenching their power, suppressing dissent, and trying to legitimize their illegal rule.
Jamaat-e-Islami’s role here is absolutely central. This is the same organization that opposed the Liberation War in 1971 and participated in genocide. They never stopped trying to destabilize the country. This time is no different. Colonel Haq is now openly known to be a senior Jamaat figure, and he is preparing to run as a Jamaat candidate from the Dhaka-2 constituency. A man accused of planning police murders now wants to become a member of parliament. Nothing could be more absurd.
Jamaat and its allies always hide behind masks. Sometimes they invoke Islam, sometimes democracy, sometimes student rights. But their true face is violence, terror, and lust for power. The events of July–August 2024 are yet another blazing proof of that.
The reported links to Pakistan’s ISI make this even more serious. Since 1971, Pakistan has consistently tried to destabilize Bangladesh. They do not want Bangladesh to prosper. They continue to conspire through local proxies. The emerging evidence of their direct involvement in these events is a major national security threat.
Then there is the question of foreign funding. Yunus’s international connections are well known. He has close relationships with Western governments. Whether foreign money financed this conspiracy is under investigation, but the scale and precision of the operation make it clear that significant funding was involved. Where that money came from and whose interests it served must be uncovered.
The most tragic part is that the students who genuinely wanted change were used. Their movement was hijacked. Their dreams were sacrificed for the ambitions of a few power-hungry individuals. And now those in power are not even thinking about those students. Instead, they are using the bloodshed committed in the students’ name to sustain their illegal rule.
The Awami League government had many flaws and made many mistakes, that is true. But it was an elected government. It came to power through votes. Everyone had the right to criticize it and protest peacefully against it. But overthrowing an elected government through murder, terror, and conspiracy and seizing power illegally is completely unacceptable. That is the death of democracy, the violation of the constitution, and an insult to the people’s will.
What Yunus and his so-called government are doing now is a farce. They have no legitimacy, no popular mandate, only conspiracies and the blessings of foreign patrons. This government will not benefit the country, and it cannot, because it was born of blood, conspiracy, and betrayal of national interest.
Where are the families of the police officers who died in July–August? Who will deliver justice for them? Will the killers of innocent civilians ever be punished, or will Yunus’s government reward them instead? The questions remain, and the chances of answers grow slimmer.
This chapter will be written in black letters in the nation’s history. A planned conspiracy, a bloody coup, and an illegal seizure of power. Yunus and his allies will be remembered as conspirators, because the truth always comes out eventually. No matter how hard they try, they will not be able to erase the stains of July’s blood. And one day, they will have to answer for it.
