Crisis in Bangladesh: the premier resigned and fled to India. Military in power

All this happened after at least 95 people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces in Bangladesh on Sunday. Just a few weeks after the recent student demonstrations that cost the lives of about 200 young people, tens of thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets over the weekend and started marching on the centre of the capital Dhaka on Monday morning, despite the government's decision to impose a curfew. Accelerating the crisis was the announcement that at 3pm local time the army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman would address the population.

Yesterday's 95 dead make Sunday the most violent day in the country's recent history. At the height of the protests in July, the death toll never exceeded 67 within 24 hours. At least 13 policemen would also be among the victims. In addition to the approximately 300 dead since the start of the protests, there are also several hundreds more injured over the weekend. Those arrested in the last month number about 11 thousand.

Before the situation came to a head, on Monday morning the executive had decreed three days of business shutdown, the closure of all courts, and the suspension of rail and mobile phone services. With the stoppage - almost total according to NetBlocks - of data traffic, Facebook and WhatsApp were also put out of action, in a vain attempt to make communication between the protesters more difficult.

Compared to the protests of a few weeks ago - which had a precise and not particularly ambitious objective, namely the modification of a rule regulating access to jobs in the public sector - the demonstrations of these days have openly aimed at the biggest target: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in power since 2009 and recently confirmed premier at the end of controversial elections, after a boycott by the main opposition party.

The July demonstrations, including curfews and internet blockades, have had a heavy impact on the economy and in particular on the clothing industry (as of today indefinitely halted), which is estimated to generate over 19 billion dollars annually. This damage is destined to reverberate on foreign exchange reserves - of which textiles and related segments are historically large collectors - which had already dropped to $21.8 billion by June.

Over the weekend, protesters demanded that people abstain from working on Sundays (which is the norm in Bangladesh, a Muslim country) and stop paying taxes and bills to bring the state machine to its knees. On Sunday, offices, banks and factories opened regularly, but many employees could not get to their workplaces.

Compared to a few weeks ago, Prime Minister Hasina had tried to be more accommodating, offering to meet with the leaders of the protest, but one of the coordinators of the movement refused, explaining that the demands of the protestors to the government can be summed up in one point: the resignation of the premier.

As was the case with the student marches, thesecurity forces repressed the demonstrations on Sunday, but this time they did so with more speed and violence, with the - failed - aim of preventing the movement from overthrowing the government.

The discontent of the population in Bangladesh is partly the result of a blocked political system: the country's main Islamist party - Jamaat-e-Islami - was banned a few days ago; while the largest opposition party - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party - has been the target of a campaign of arrests for years, which have decimated its ruling class and which reached a climax on the eve of the recent general elections

But the anger is also the result of a complex economic situation. Despite the remarkable growth rates of recent years, Bangladesh's economy has not been able to create enough jobs to meet the demographic boom and the demand coming especially from the younger generation. Today, out of a total population of about 170 million people, there are more than 30 million young people who neither have a job nor are studying with the aim of finding one.

A decidedly volatile picture on which the demands for justice by the manifestants after the bloody repression of the July protests have been inserted.