The just-formed interim government is facing a big challenge to put Bangladesh back on the path of genuine democracy, the International Crisis Group has said.
"Bangladesh hasn't seen a competitive election for 13 years due to the opposition's boycott, as occurred in January - which is part of the reason why the protest movement grew so large," it said in a report on August 07.
Under Sheikh Hasina's rule, the police and other agencies became tools of repression whose primary aim was to keep her government in power. Many recruits were Awami League loyalists who saw their futures tied to the regime's survival.
Their association with the ruling party, alongside chronic corruption, has created a deep well of resentment of the security forces, who were engaged in human rights violations ranging from arbitrary arrests to forced disappearances.
After a month of mass demonstrations against the government's increasingly autocratic rule, Sheikh Hasina resigned as Prime Minister, fled her country and took refuge in India on 05 August as thousands of protesters stormed her residence in capital Dhaka.
Altogether, at least 440 people were killed as state forces tried to suppress the unrest, the substantial majority being protesters, said the report on August 7.
Protests erupted across Bangladesh in early July, when students began street demonstrations against the reintroduction of controversial quotas in government jobs. The movement emerged amid the widespread discontent with Sheikh Hasina's government.
Yet it was Hasina's reaction to the protests that was her downfall. She sealed her fate when she decided to crack down rather than pursue dialogue with protest leaders.
As demonstrations swelled across the country in mid-July, police and paramilitary forces reportedly killed more than 200 people - a level of political violence rarely seen in Bangladesh since its independence in 1971.
Faced with the possibility of hundreds more deaths, Bangladesh's newly-appointed army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman - a distant relative of Sheikh Hasina - made it clear to the prime minister that his troops would not step in to save the government.
To enhance public confidence, Waker announced a reshuffle on 06 August, shunting aside a key Hasina loyalist.
The interim government should ensure that the thousands of people arrested for participating in the protests are released.
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