Dhaka, Bangladesh — On the afternoon of July 16, 2024, as Abu Sayeed, a student leader at the forefront of protests against then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, was shot dead by police in Rangpur – a northern district – a strikingly different scene was unfolding in the capital, Dhaka.
At the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Abdur Rahman, a senior leader of Hasina’s Awami League and a minister in her government, sat unperturbed in his office enjoying a poetry recital by a local poet.
