Bangladesh stands at a crossroads once again. As the banned Awami League calls for a so-called Dhaka Lockdown, its loyalists must ask themselves a difficult but patriotic question: what does loyalty to the nation really mean?
It does not mean marching under the banner of a fallen regime. The years of Sheikh Hasina’s rule were marked by fear, disappearances, and repression that silenced thousands of Bengali voices. Families are still searching for loved ones taken in the dead of night. Journalists, students, and opposition members suffered under a system that mistook obedience for patriotism and control for stability.
Human Rights Watch says about 600 people were forcibly disappeared in Bangladesh between 2009 and 2024. Rights groups report at least 2,658 people were killed in extrajudicial executions from 2009 to mid-2022. Amnesty International documented 466 killings during the government’s 2018 anti-drug campaign. United Nations says up to 1,400 people were killed in the July–August 2024 crackdown on protests. This is Hasina’s record.
Now, after the regime’s collapse, some former supporters are being told to flood the streets again — this time in defiance of the state and against the fragile peace so many sacrificed to restore. But Bangladesh has bled enough. The nation cannot afford another cycle of violence wrapped in the language of resistance.
Real patriotism is not measured by how loudly one shouts a party slogan, but by how deeply one protects the country’s unity and dignity. Staying home on the day of the so-called lockdown is not cowardice; it is an act of loyalty to the red and green flag, to the martyrs who died for it, and to the hope that Bangladesh can finally move beyond fear.
The people who once followed Hasina should now follow their conscience. The era of intimidation is over. Let peace and accountability, not blind allegiance, guide the next chapter of Bangladesh’s story.