It is perhaps not a coincidence that four governments in the region that had begun to collaborate with the BRI have fallen, and that their replacements in three of them are eager for better ties with the United States. This includes Shehbaz Sharif, who came to power in Pakistan in April 2022 with the ouster of Imran Khan (now in prison), Ranil Wickremesinghe, who briefly came to power in Sri Lanka in July 2022 after setting aside a mass uprising that had other ideas than the installation of a party with only one member in parliament (Wickremesinghe himself), and KP Sharma Oli, who came to power in July 2024 in Nepal after a parliamentary shuffle that removed the Maoists from power.

At this point I suspect the USA automatically for anything bad that is happening in the world today.

the old neoliberal technocrats are already swimming like sharks around the interim government. In their ranks are those who favor the BNP and the Islamists.

I wonder if they are getting Western backing/money.

If the student committee now formed a bloc with the trade unions, particularly the garment worker unions, there is the possibility that they might indeed form the opening for building a new democratic and people-centered Bangladesh.

I'm pessimistic, I'm old enough to have seen many promising movements fade/disappear.

If they are unable to build this historical bloc, they may be pushed to the side, just like the students and workers in Egypt, and they might have to surrender their efforts to the military and an elite that has merely changed its jersey.

So it goes. And as long as the US, et al. exist this is how things will continue to go.

I haven't said much about these protests in prior threads apart from how much death was there.

I know everyone is already talked about possible US involvement.

What I want to say like very specifically, (again people can disagree with this) is that this has the makings of a gladio operation. Again not the coup itself. The leadup and the protests. Then the secondary agitation and the high deaths to me feels like a gladio operation.

As far as the situation in the surrounding goes I feel like its already has been volatile. So since the myanmar coup and the war there. There's been a huge refugee crisis. Specifically surrounding Mizoram and bangladesh.

Not to mention there's always been CIA presence via providing intel to bangla intelligence to hunt down rohingya refugees or leaders.

I still think there is worse escalation to come.

There is social unrest and its triggering action among the masses.

Who, if anyone, is being the "headlights" of the masses right now in Bangladesh?

Small update: now even the ousted PM herself hints at US involvement

"I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to hold away over the Bay of Bengal."