Bangladeshi students in St. John's celebrate resignation of prime minister following protests at home

Bangladeshi students in St. John's are celebrating after weeks of deadly protests at home have come to an end.

"It is a feeling of victory. I'm just running out of words to express how happy I am and just be rest assured that every Bangladeshi around the world is feeling the same," said Shafi Abrar, Memorial University student and spokesperson for the local Student Alliance for Bangladesh in Canada.

On Monday, Bangladesh Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of violent and deadly protests between student protesters and police, as well as other authorities.

The origin of the protests was a controversial job quota system that reserves 30 per cent of government jobs for the children and grandchildren of those who fought in Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971.

The quota had been suspended since 2018 following mass student demonstrations; it was reinstated in June, sparking new protests, which Abrar said were student-led.

"This is a revolution which has been led by the students and the victory has been earned by the students, and we have to take initiative for that and for the betterment of our motherland," he said.

To celebrate, the Bangladeshi student community gathered at Memorial University's clock tower at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. NT on Monday.

"We celebrated, we distributed sweets. This is a cultural thing; when we hear any good news, we distribute sweets," Abrar said. "We encouraged each other, and we discussed what we're going to do moving forward, because this victory is for the students."

'Better moving forward'

The protests hit close to home for the Bangladeshi community in Newfoundland and Labrador.

At one point, the internet in the country was shut off, cutting students like Abrar off from their families.

"It's way better now because the internet connections have been restored," he said. "We were in touch with our families and it's hoping that it's going to be better moving forward."

In addition to losing contact with loved ones, Bangladesh's internet outage left many without access to their bank accounts, which raised concerns about tuition payments for Bangladeshi students.

MUN stepped in to help.

"Memorial has decided that student Bangladesh students would be able to register even if they didn't pay the fees for the summer semester," Abrar said. "The banks are being opened today, and hopefully things will resume and get back to normal very soon."

While there are still political tensions in Bangladesh, Abrar is hopeful things will continue to improve.

"This is a revolution of the entire country, and when this decision comes from the student-led organization, everyone's happy," he said.

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