Nine months after a military-driven interim government assumed power in Bangladesh, the country is facing its greatest peril of the past decade and a half. Despite the promise of free and fair elections, a state of emergency continues to mute dissent, while the spectre of dictatorial rule is visible in the increasing media censorship, intimidation of journalists and arbitrary arrests by the security forces in night-time raids.
In an interview in September, Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, the country's de facto prime minister, claimed that the media was operating freely, without any government intervention. A week later, his administration imposed a set of sinister guidelines on televised talk-shows. Printed on plain paper, these new diktats specified the number of talk-shows a station can air per week, while warning against the questioning of the government's legitimacy. "Any kind of instigating, blind and biased opinions and statements that can create resentment towards the legitimate government of Bangladesh should also be avoided," stated the stricture. This was only the latest in the government's crackdown on media.
When Fakhruddin and his cabinet assumed power on 11 January this year, stalling elections scheduled for later that month, they were backed by tremendous popular support and public optimism. Nine months on, much of that backing has waned, turning instead into resentment. Recent signs of this devolution have included student protests in August at Dhaka University against the army's presence – protests that sparked countrywide demonstrations, during which at least one protestor was killed. The government responded with a curfew and violent raids of the country's universities, which bludgeoned demonstrators into submission.
Since then, student leaders and teachers have been picked up and questioned, with one prominent Dhaka University professor accusing his captors of torturing him before he was produced in court. Initially, the police filed cases against an astounding number of protestors, although this number was drastically reduced when the government realised that doing so undermined its description of the violence as a 'conspiracy' by a mere handful of political elements.