🧵 Bangladesh’s Prothom Alo newspaper has a front-page story on the final moments of Hasina’s tenure. She insisted on using brute force until only 45 minutes before her departure; no amount of pleading from her aides and officials could persuade her to relent. 1/n She was furious that the army wasn’t using [lethal] force to shield her from angry protesters, the report suggests.

Referring to the police, she urged the army to act similarly. She reminded the chief that she picked him as the chief over others and he should reciprocate. 2/n

.@bbcbangla pulls another brilliant story into the origin of the recent anti-Hindu violence in Cumilla, Bangladesh. Let me dwell on each of the findings and analyses of the story and offer some of my own.

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bbc.com/bengali/news-5… The Quran was found near a Ganesh statue, not Hanuman’s as was previously known, at a makeshift temple, the story claims.

The police became aware of the incident when a Muslim boy called 999 to complain that a Quran was seen at the temple. It was around 7 in the morning.

Media in Bangladesh have grown a habit of censoring news. Some covered the anti-Hindu violence so timidly that it almost felt as if nothing happened. So I spoke to 4 journalists — two from newspapers, one TV station and the other a news website — to understand what caused this. Two reporters — both from two outlets known as friendly to the govt. — told me that two different govt. agencies asked them to exercise restraint in covering the violence. A news editor at another outlet, also pro-government, says they didn’t receive explicit instructions.