Chương 49: Update: Aftermath
I'm writing this as soon as the internet came back.
I swear with my life, the long silence was not intentional. Nor was it to create some stupid death rumor sympathy effect to gain a few clicks. I wanted to keep you guys up to date about my situation, but they intentionally caused a region-wide internet blackout.
Sorry for making you guys worried. It wasn't professional to get you guys involved in another country's political feud.
I've escaped. I'm fine. I'm safe.. for now.
For those wondering about the aftermath, well... the country's a 'mess'. Trust me, they're probably not showing any of the things I'm saying here.
Our demands were met (temporarily) and a merit based system was promised to be implemented on all government based structures. The previous 56% quota reservation was reduced to a mere 7%.
Shouldn't we be satisfied with that?
As if..
Truthfully, we've won the battle, but lost the war. No, collectively, I think we've lost.
As mentioned before, it's a temporary hearing from the high court; which means the government can change it whenever they want. Sheikh Hassina never addressed nor apologized for calling us Rajakar (Traitor). The goal of removing student politics, the main cause of this mess remained unresolved. The families of the 200+ souls who were mercilessly murdered during the demonstrations are uncompensated (And the news says it's only six. They must think we're blind or something). Those fucking dogs are smugly walking the streets scott free!
This was the first time we took an unexpected stand against this corrupt government. We'd managed to shake the entire country to it's core. Naturally, they'd want to take control of the leash again. They'll silently initiate their own culling program once everything dies down, spreading cold terror and only sparing those in support of Hassina.
My mistake, they already have..
It was only a week ago. The armies were not sent back to their barracks. Instead, the government suddenly declared a nationwide curfew; thus equipping the army with section 144, the legal right to arrest or shoot any vigilante (civilian/students) who dared to protest. Freedom of speech, my ass.
We were forced to stay within the confines of our houses, just like the COVID-19 days. Without the internet, we'd become blind and deaf to what was 'actually' going on in the country. Without any means of communication, there was no crying for international help as we'd become silent.
Other political groups decided to butt in, causing the situation to go from bad to worse.
In the name of stopping political vigilantes, only lord knows how many people have been shot for the last few days. I've read it in the newspaper that the army had launched a 'Chiruni' mission to detain everyone who were involved with spreading 'misinformation' and participated in inciting violence.
The unity between the students collapsed. We're unable to gather together because of the curfew. The communication between us is nonexistent.
And expectedly, students began to go missing.
A senior of my own department who was only a year older than me, had been part of the movement from the very beginning. He's not picking up anyone's calls anymore. Not even his parents know his whereabouts. It's been almost five days now since he's gone radio silent.
Poof! Just like that.. vanished from existence.
Would I be the next one?
Haha.. Who knows?
By the way, I'm technically committing an anti-government act by exposing shit here. If they ever get a wind of this... Lmao, probably just being paranoid.
At any rate, things are going back to normal. I'll also go back to doing whatever I was doing, I guess.. Let's pretend like nothing ever happened. Stop talking about some guy named Ladesh getting Banged, and get back to our own lives, shall we?
Everything is going to be okay.
In the meantime, I think I should share some of the experiences...
Tear Gas:
Ever smelt tear gas?
Yes, that white gas that they throw at the protesters. It may seem like harmless smoke and you may ask yourself, "why aren't they just walking through it?" I used to think the same, but..in reality, it's not 'just smoke'.
It's the kind of smoke that you want to stay at least a hundred steps away.
They literally threw one inside the fucking metro station in Mirpur-10!
The moment it touches your skin, it burns. Your eyes feel as if someone had rubbed hand sanitizer and spices over it. Your nose starts liquidating, you unintentionally salivate and drool like an animal. Lungs feel as though someone had forcefully pushed fireants inside. Be careful not to inhale it too much. You'll get a severe nosebleed for all the bad reasons. Instinctively, you feel like 'It'd be better to just lose consciousness at this point.'
Don't! You'll die, either because of suffocation, or, by being beaten to death by those fatherless bastards.
You wanna run? Too bad. Your body wouldn't want to listen to you anymore. Your vision goes blurry from tears and sweat.
So if they throw one of those at you, don't be a dumbass badass. Be a wise coward. Make sure to wash your face with carbonated drinks and apply toothpastes to reduce the chemical effects. Steal a fire extinguisher or burn a few things there to dissipate the chemicals in the air.
Rubber Bullets:
Let me tell you a thing about rubber bullets. Shit slaps like that ex girlfriend who cheated on you, even though you're bitchless and you never had a bitch to begin with. Remember, never stand in front of a protest. You'll be sure to get hit.
It's not designed to penetrate your skin. But that's from a specific distance. There are examples of these shits killing people. Usually, they're used to scare the protesters. But in the midst of chaos, everyone became fearless.
'Abu Sayeed' if you've heard of him, you'd probably know. He literally stood right in front of the guns fearlessly, and took bullets after bullets until one hit him in his respiratory system and collapsed.
I'll never not feel bad about this man. He was the only son of a poor family.. his parents' only hope of future. Gone, just like that.
I really wish the government does something, or anyone at this point.. like creating a donate page dedicated for them. Whatever we pay would never be enough compared to his sacrifice and the morale increasing bravery he showed that day.
Residential Area:
One of the nights during the curfew in Dhaka, I was on the roof, hanging out with my roommates and seniors. We heard around 12 to 13 loud gunshots near our building. It was a residential area for fuck's sake! Which was miles away from the DU student hall.
We even witnessed a helicopter patrolling over the high rise rooftops, barely brushing past ours where all of us were standing.
My escape:
I'm not making an exaggeration when I say this. I've lived thorough a real life suspense thriller.
Honestly, I wanted to stay at Dhaka through the entire thing. I wanted to do some 'Dog hunting' myself, with knives and hammers. Or at least my delusional 'chuunibyou' did, before maturity slapped it back to reality.
Let's face it. It's sticks and knifes against armed soldiers with guns and armors. If I was killed, they'd probably try to frame my corpse as a BNP terrorist or something??
So, my roommates slowly became homesick and escaped a day before. That's why I also had to make a decision.
Either stay there to waste my parent's hard earned money on food that's price was increasing everyday...
Or, actually grow some balls and leave.
...Do I really have to tell which decision I made?
The conditions were simple. Dhaka was the capital dome, thus making it the red zone. It was under heavy surveillance during the day time, no exceptions. Not a single transportation system would be available under daylight.. But it was a different story under the shadows of night. I only slept one hour that night.
I was alone, and on my own.
When I stepped outside it was 4:20 AM in the clock (not joking). At first, I looked around the streets to see if there were any small transportations nearby. Seeing no hope, I gave up searching and began walking until..
... I walked across a hoard of street dogs (the real ones).
They began barking aggressively and slowly began advancing toward me. I was startled for a second and it would be lying if I said I didn't get spooked a little. I somehow managed to keep my shit together, knowing that they wouldn't hurt me, lest I hurt them (much unlike their cousins who kill people for a mere packet of Biryani).
I pulled my rucksack and my hands forward, slowly and calmly backing away while maintaining strong eye contact on the leader of the pack. As I posed no harm, they got off my ass after a minute or so. When I saw them going back to sleep, I turned my back on them and walked away.
Thankfully, I didn't have to walk all 5.1 kilometers to the Bus Terminal as I found and boarded a rickshaw (foot vehicle, just Google it). After I reached there...
There was no bus.
I honestly felt a bit dejected there, but honestly, that was part of the preparations anyway.
Quickly, my plan went from looking for buses to looking around for people who'd be willing to go to a common location together, and luckily managed to land myself on a group of four. We took a CNG-runned vehicle and escaped to a nearby district.
After getting down and saying goodbye to the previous group, I looked around and gathered three people who later joined me on my way home. Thankfully, aside from the rain, we didn't face any more man made problems on the way.
We even drove across army members a few times. Surprisingly, they were chill on the outside districts. Though the streets were cleared, I couldn't help but notice burnt police boxes, broken bricks and rubbles, coneheads, bullet shells lying next to the roads.
Truly a once in a lifetime experience. I'll tell my grandkids this is how I used to commute to college.
It may have been described it in a little exaggerated, narcissistic and self highlighting way, but the events weren't made up. At least believe me on this part.
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