1996 marked the 25th anniversary of the war between East and West Pakistan in which hundreds of thousands of Bengalis died and which resulted in the creation of the new state of Bangladesh. The country has been ruled for much of the time since then by military dictators. The last of these, General Hussain Mohammad Ershad, was ousted in 1990 after almost nine years in power and the democratic election of Begum Khaleda Zia which followed seemed to herald a hopeful new era. But her government became increasingly repressive - the more so as people started to take to the streets in protest against its policies.
This came to a head in the early months of 1996. Begum Zia called an election but her party (the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP) had rigged by-elections so blatantly that few trusted it to oversee a fair national vote. The opposition call for a boycott of the election was almost universally observed yet the Government still claimed a landslide victory. The clampdown became more brutal: opposition activists were attacked by hit squads and six key opposition leaders were rounded up. When the popular Mayor of Chittagong, Mohiuddin Chowdhury, was arrested people took to the streets. Rioters set Chittagong aflame and an effective general strike paralyzed the whole country.
Eventually, on 30 March, the Government had no option but to resign and allow a caretaker administration to oversee a fair election. The new election on 12 June saw a massive turn-out and was duly won by the main opposition party, the Awami League, led by Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Sheikh Hasina is herself the daughter of a former President, which indicates that political power still rests within the same narrow élite - the poor in Bangladesh are unlikely to receive a new deal. Nevertheless the first part of 1996 saw a major triumph for popular opposition to repression and corrupt practice.