ON August 5, Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, fled to India to escape a furious mob after ruling for 20 years. Since protests engulfed the nation of 171 million people, nearly 400 have been killed because of Hasina's brutal crackdown, mass arrests, shoot-on-sight orders, curfews and news blackouts.
Hundreds of thousands of riled-up protesters descended on Dhaka, the country's capital, wielding bamboo sticks and lead pipes to force Hasina out of office. However, the prime minister was preparing to make a last stand even if more blood spilled in the capital. Bangladesh's army chief Waker-uz-Zaman and other security chiefs had enough and convinced Hasina to leave her residence since the angry mob was closing in. It took the anguished pleas of her son based in Virginia in the US to make her reconsider her position and fly by helicopter to an air force base in India.
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