An image is worth a thousand words – sometimes, it can even stir a nation.
In Bangladesh, it was the image of university student Abu Sayeed standing with open arms, stick in hand, facing heavily-armed police alone which many credit as the turning point in the recent widespread protest in the country against quotas in government jobs.
Within seconds, as the video shows, the young man was shot at – but still he continues to stand, even as the sounds of more shots ring out. He collapses a few minutes later.
The 16 July incident quickly went viral, triggering more students to jump into the agitation against reservations in civil service jobs for the family members of the veterans of the country’s independence war in 1971.
What followed were days of unrest, marked by an unprecedented ferocity of violence. Bangladesh security agencies are accused of a disproportionate…
