If Amar Desh, a newspaper representing the right, believes that it is appropriate to make a lead story out of men and women arrested at a party even before its ideological allies have acquired real power, then we can form some idea of what people who share Amar Desh's values might do if they actually gained power.
When institutions operate without transparency or accountability, they forfeit their legitimacy and become the very source of the wounds they were meant to heal. For the post-uprising state to heal the nation, it must first heal itself, by dismantling these deeply rooted practices of exception and institutionalized violence.
In July 2024, when the entire country erupted in protest, when over 1,400 lives were lost, and when Dhaka became a city under siege, RAB did not revert to familiar patterns. They did not conduct midnight raids. They did not trigger mass disappearances. Instead, they acted as a containment force. That contrast is not just noteworthy, it is historic.
