Michigan’s Bangladeshi community celebrates ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

Hundreds of people from the Michigan Bangladeshi community gathered at Jayne Field in Banglatown on Monday night to celebrate the resignation of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Protestors in Bangladesh called on Hasina to step down amid growing tensions with government leaders who killed hundreds of peaceful student protestors. They spoke against a quota system that gives one-third of government jobs to the descendants of those who fought in the 1971 Independence War.

Tracy Sabrina of Lake Orion joined the Detroit celebration. 

“We’re here to just to celebrate the…start of the new Bangladesh, and I really hope for the best for the country,” Sabrina said.

Revelers passed out sweets, chanted, and marched down Conant Avenue from Detroit to Hamtramck.

Michigan is home to the third largest population of Bangladeshi Americans. 

Nuzhat Ali says she was initially traumatized by the news of deadly clashes in Bangladesh, where much of her family still lives. Nearly 300 people have died as the Bangladeshi government tried to suppress the protests.

Ali is hopeful about the changes in the country.

“We’re not going to have a prime minister like [Hasina]. We’re going to have a better Bangladesh,” she said.

Ali shared her family members in Bangladesh have not been able to open their shops, nor has her 92-year-old grandfather been able to get medical attention due to the country’s unrest.

MD Nahidur Rahman says this moment marks a “second” independence for Bangladeshi people since 1971.

“We are very happy. My parents, everybody, all the old Bangladeshi people, they are so happy. You can see everybody…eating the sweets for the independent, independent day today,” Rahman said. 

Rahman was born and raised in Bangladesh. He says Michigan’s Bangladeshi community has been supporting the student protestors since the deadly clashes. 

Since Hasina’s resignation and fleeing from the country, Bangladesh’s interim government is being sworn in on Thursday.

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will serve as the Chief Advisor for the interim government. Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding Grameen Bank and giving micro-loans to women in Bangladesh.