Who is Nahid Islam, student leader who led protests that ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina?
Bangladesh is slowly coming to terms with the country's new reality as the Army maintains its strong vigil, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.
Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been gradually losing her iron grip on power in recent months due to the student protests that spiralled out of control.
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What caused the students protest
Nearly 300 people, mostly students, were killed in weeks of violence across the country in protests that started as a movement against quotas in government jobs.
The protests began in June this year after the Supreme Court reinstated a 30% quota in government jobs for the descendants of 1971 freedom fighters. Students across various campuses began protesting, demanding reforms to the quota system, arguing that it was discriminatory.
Who is Nahid Islam
Nahid Islam, a sociology student, is one of the key leaders of the protest that forced Hasina to step down after being in power for 15 years.??
Twenty-six-year-old Islam rose to national fame in mid-July after police detained him and some other Dhaka University students as the protests turned deadly.
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"He was picked up by the police, tortured until he was unconscious, and then dumped on the road. Despite all this, he continues to fight. We have confidence that he will not give up. Proud of him," Nakib Islam, a geography student, told Reuters.
Islam, born in Dhaka in 1998, is married and has a younger brother, Nakib. His father is a teacher, and his mother is a homemaker.
Since then, he has become one of the faces of the protest, which demanded Hasina's resignation.
What?Nahid Islam said
On Monday, following Hasina's resignation, Islam said that the students would create a new Bangladesh.
"We will create a new democratic Bangladesh through our promise of security of life, social justice, and a new political landscape," he said.
He has also made it clear that they would not accept any government led or supported by the army and has proposed that Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus be the chief adviser.
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