On September 16, 2025, in the middle of London, beneath the watchful eye of Nelson’s Column, history entwined itself. At Trafalgar Square, thousands of Bangladeshi expats congregated for the “Rally for Bangladesh.” Their cries echoed through the crisp fall air: “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu,” “Sheikh Hasina Ashbe, Bangladesh Hashbe,” and a thunderous “Step Down Yunus.”
The Jamaat-controlled “illegal and unconstitutional regime” in Dhaka was denounced in banners that waved like war flags, while posters revealed allegations of extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary arrests. Awami League President and five-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is the daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father; this was more than just a protest; it was a promise to bring her back from exile.
The location was deliberate.ย Here on August 8, 1971, Bengalis in exile held the “Recognise Bangladesh Rally,” a rally to bring attention to the Liberation War against Pakistan. The spirit of defiance echoed through it again, more than half a century later. At the rally, ex-ministers including Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury and SM Rezaul Karim, as well as ex-member of parliament Abu Sayeed Al Mahmood Swapon, denounced the International Crimes Tribunal’s (ICT-BD) absurd proceedings and the prohibition on Awami League activities.ย
The Yunus regime has turned Bangladesh into a “Death Valley” of corruption, nepotism, and persecution of minorities by portraying Muhammad Yunus’s interim administration as a pawn of extreme Islamists and the Jamaat-Shibir coalition. The diaspora conveyed a strong message to their family back home while bystanders from the UK took pictures: You are not alone.
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One year after the July Revolution deposed the previous government, this demonstration comes at a critical point in the tumultuous political history of Bangladesh.ย In an interim administration that pledged democratic reforms and transparency, Nobel Prize-winning economist Yunus came to power on August 8, 2024.ย
But by May 10, 2025, his government had caved to pressure from student activists and the National Citizen Party (NCP) and had used the Anti-Terrorism Act to halt all Awami League operations, online and off, until the trials at the ICT-BD, which had been reorganised to prosecute the party collectively, concluded. The party will not be able to participate in the national elections scheduled for early February 2026 as a result of the Election Commission suspending its registration on May 12.
The gathering in Trafalgar Square highlights a deep irony in this era of repression: the ban that was meant to bury the Awami League may be bringing it to light.
The party’s miraculous comebacks are littered throughout history. After being banned three times (in 1958 by General Ayub Khan, 1971 by General Yahya Khan, and 1975 by General Ziaur Rahman), the Awami League has consistently made a comeback, supported by its 40% devoted voting base and the lasting impact of 1971’s architect, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The Awami League represents Bengali nationalism and was founded in 1949 as a secular barrier against communalism. That institution laid the groundwork for stability that Yunus’s dictatorship is now wasting, guiding Bangladesh through economic miracles under Hasina (GDP growth averaging 6-7% yearly, poverty cut from 40% to 20%).
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Beyond mere symbolism, the rally signifies the diaspora’s vital role in maintaining hope. The disproportionate impact of Bangladesh’s 10 million expats is due to the $22 billion they send back to the country every year. European Awami League members in the United Kingdom alone petitioned to have Yunus’ Nobel Peace Prize awarded to someone who had enabled the “erosion of intellectual freedom.” Like the protests that helped change Western attitudes in favour of Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, these acts increase international scrutiny. They are putting pressure on Yunus now because of the growing internal strife: the BNP wants polls in December 2025, student coalitions are breaking apart, and the military is unhappy with the interim government’s indecision.
Sheikh Hasina, who is in Delhi and is being protected by Modi, continues to be a ghostly presence, speaking out against the ban in audio messages, calling it “illegal.”
The rally serves as a measure of the Awami League’s resilience, which is important for their return chances. Public opinion is divided, but the prohibition, which NCP extremists like Hasnat Abdullah have championed, could have unintended consequences. Suppression has lifted the party out of unpopularity, according to analysts, who also point out that grassroots voices are longing for Sheikh Hasina’s unity.ย
Awami League’s participation in the elections has been urged by BNP officials, who are hoping for a divided opposition. Using Hasina’s Mujibite halo, the League might rebrand underground if trials continue beyond 2026, as hinted at by Yunus. While the party’s DNA thrives on difficulty, there’s no assurance of a post-ban recovery due to the persistence of internal differences.
Despite his past claims of reform, Yunus has instead imposed a mob-fueled dictatorship on Bangladesh, putting the country in peril. The regime’s tactic of well-planned mob violence has thrown the country into chaos, yet it is more effective than legitimacy or governance in maintaining power. Consider Gosaibari Collegepara in Bogura’s Dhunat Upazila: a place of learning and tranquillity in the past, it has now become a haven for adolescent gangs. Fearing retaliation for the September 11 armed assault that wounded five, residents cower in human chains.
The police are complicit in their inaction and turn a blind eye as gang members fabricate charges and go door-to-door at night, threatening people’s lives. Criminals promote instability to support up Yunus, and this is just one example of the nationwide mobocracy.
Manobadhikar Sangskriti Foundation (MSF), a human rights organisation, has documented a disturbing increase in the number of mob lynchings, with 23 in August compared to 16 in July. The majority of these fatalities are being covered up as acts of spontaneous chaos, but they are being carried out by political and extremist proxies. As demonstrated by the arson of Jatiya Party offices in twelve districts, these attacks are coordinated by Yunus’s allies, the NCP, Gono Odhikar Parishad (GOP), BNP, and Jamaat.
They are known as “mob attacks” because they can be easily denied, and they have one and only purpose: to silence opposition and prevent elections. The religious pogroms are much more sinister. The “Touhidi Janata” platform, which is a loose coalition of Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefazat-e-Islam, and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, has destroyed more than a hundred Sufi shrines and Darbar Sharifs. This coalition is supported by the government and foreign extremist groups like Ansar al-Islam, Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and Hizb ut-Tahrir.
In fact, Yunus elevates it to the status of a sacred thing.ย He brushes off the bloodshed as “revolutionary spirited activity,” and his press section praises the crowds as “pressure groups.” Political legitimisation undermines moral authority; there are no condemnations and no accountability.ย
Rumeen Farhana, a senior BNP leader and Yunus’s own deputy foreign affairs secretary, has abandoned ship: The government is purposefully patronising the rioters…ย Approximately 380 mob episodes have occurred in the past year. In such a place, no one would dare to invest or even consider living. The economy, which was once the envy of the area, is now on the verge of collapse as investment has stopped and educated families are fleeing in large numbers. Senior journalist Arshad Mahmud agrees, saying: “People think the Yunus government is highly corrupt.”ย
Fearing that “Islam is not safe in the hands of the Yunus-Jamaat clique,” Sheikh Hasina has vowed to send razakars to Karachi for deportation.
Yunus relies on this mobocracy, which emerged after the upheaval in July 2024, to suppress rebellion because he lacks the support of the grassroots. The United Nations turns a blind eye to the repression of minorities, scholars condemn the repression of free speech, and the Financial Times unearths billions in corrupt funds tied to the regime. This oppression culminates in the Awami League’s prohibition, which prevents Yunus from voting. But the decay goes deeper, entering the nation’s economic system. Bangladesh has fallen into a crisis that requires well-planned, long-term reforms to recover from, all because Yunus’s illegitimate rule has wiped out twenty years of hard-won successes in less than a year. UK-based Economist Professor Dr. Arif Khan bemoans the fact that the regime’s corruption, incompetence, and lack of long-term planning have reduced a once-thriving economy to rubble, wiping out achievements that had lifted millions of people out of poverty.
Claims that the previous Awami League government laundered $234 billion abroad disintegrate under investigation. Yunus’s advisers peddle these tales without evidence, a blatant diversion tactic, while the real scandals unfold under their watch: foreign exchange reserves have plummeted to record lows, with fresh allegations of money laundering swirling around regime insiders in offshore banks. Everyone else takes a hit. Unchecked price increases, widespread unemployment, and disappearing investments are now affecting around 60% of the population, who are middle- and lower-class families. Despite all the “revolutionary” rhetoric, the skyrocketing prices of necessities have put a strain on family budgets and created an atmosphere of widespread uncertainty.
Due to environmental instability, unlawful rule, and rising militancy, foreign direct investmentโestimated at $15 billion for 2025โhas vanished.ย Industrial growth has stalled, factories shutter, and thousands of workersโonce the backbone of Bangladesh’s garment-led miracleโjoin swelling unemployment lines. The domestic industrial sector alone has haemorrhaged an estimated $200 billion in losses: production disrupted, exports in freefall, and enterprises teetering on bankruptcy. Add hundreds of billions more in total losses, and the disaster is worsening; as a result, Bangladesh is now one of the five most corrupt countries in the world. Pharma giant Renata’s stark exposรฉ of the “scary economic conditions” under Yunus underscores the peril, as does the regime’s bungled US trade talks, where aide Debapriya Bhattacharya’s censure of non-disclosure agreements reveals a government more interested in opacity than opportunity. Even Ukraine’s push for EU sanctions on Bangladeshโtied to rising militancyโthreatens to isolate the country further, while a critical review of the US-Bangladesh reciprocal trade pact highlights how Yunus’s shortsighted diplomacy dooms long-term prospects.
Compounding this economic Armageddon is the resurgence of militancy, a direct byproduct of Yunus’s unholy alliances. Extremist groups, emboldened by regime patronage, tarnish Bangladesh’s international image beyond monetary repair. This isn’t mere security theatre; it’s an existential threat to development and stability, as shrines burn and radical networks like JMB weave deeper into the social fabric. The Financial Times’ rift over a paid documentary on “missing billions” only amplifies the irony: Yunus, once hailed as a poverty-busting visionary, now oversees a “nation in decline,” where brain drain accelerates and investor confidence evaporates.
Trafalgar Square’s roar exposes the fraud: elections without the League invite not just crisis, but a theocratic abyss where Sufi graves become battlegrounds, children wield machetes, and factories echo with silence. The rally warns that excluding the Awami League invites crisis: a BNP-Jamaat coalition could unravel secular gains, or worse, spark civil strife.
Regional stability hangs in the balanceโIndia frets over Islamist gains, while China eyes economic voids. Accountability for this illegal rule is overdue; its one-year reign has proven the perils of unbridled power without democratic moorings. The people of Bangladesh, who have repeatedly defended democracy with their blood, must rise again. Only through inclusive polls, good governance, and true accountability can the nation claw back from devastation.
For Yunus, the message is starkโdismantle your mob legions, lift the gag, hold inclusive polls, or watch the boat return on a tide of justified rage. For Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League, it’s a clarion: the fight endures. In 2026, when ballots fall, Trafalgar Square’s roar may yet drown out the mobs’ howls and the ledgers’ lament.
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