It was earlier this month, as protests swept Bangladesh and bodies lay on the streets, that prime minister Sheikh Hasina hastily boarded a helicopter. She was unaccompanied by any political aides and did not tell any of her senior ministers she was leaving. In a matter of hours, she touched down in neighbouring India, where she has been ever since.
The protests that led to Hasina’s downfall had quickly escalated from student demonstrations on campuses to a nationwide mass revolution, with hundreds of thousands calling for her removal and the return of democracy. Hasina’s government responded with an onslaught of violence and bullets, leaving hundreds dead and thousands injured.
