1990 Mass Uprising in Bangladesh

1990 Mass Uprising of Bangladesh
Mass rally of Dhaka blockade, 10 November 1987
Date 10 October – 4 December Location Dhaka, Bangladesh Result Fall of Hussain Muhammad Ershad Beginning of parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh
Commanders and leaders
Begum Khaleda Zia Sheikh Hasina	Hussain Muhammad Ershad

The 1990 mass uprising was a democratic movement that took place on 4 December and led to the fall of General Hussain Muhammad Ershad in Bangladesh. The uprising was the result of a series of popular protests that started from 10 October 1990 to topple General Ershad who came to power in 1982 by imposing martial law and replaced a democratically elected President through a bloodless coup.

The uprising is marked as the starting point of parliamentary democracy in Bangladesh after nine years of military rule and paved the way for a credible election in 1991. Bangladesh Nationalist Party led 7-party alliance, Bangladesh Awami League led 8-party alliance and Leftist 5-party alliance was instrumental in staging the uprising against Ershad.

About hundred people died during the protests those led to the upsurge from 10 October till 4 December, around fifty were the casualty of the violent protests and street fights started from 27 November after a state of emergency was declared. General Ershad was arrested immediately after the uprising on corruption charges.

After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman on 30 May 1981 and the takeover of power by Vice-President Justice Abdus Sattar as the acting President of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Hussain Muhammad Ershad extended his support to the acting President Sattar. But later, General Ershad in an interview to The Guardian opined that there should a specific role of the military in the government and civil administration which was refuted by the President.

Infuriated General Ershad imposed a martial law on 24 March 1982 and declared himself as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. He replaced Justice Sattar with Justice A. F. M. Ahsanuddin Chowdhury as the President. On 11 April 1983, Hussain Muhammad Ershad suspended the constitution and declared himself as the President of Bangladesh.

The first major opposition Ershad had to deal with was the Anti-Majid Khan Education Policy movement in 1983. Amid state of emergency, hundreds of thousands of students gathered to protest the proposed education policy that was aimed at making Arabic a mandatory language to learn in primary level education. In the two days of street battles in the University of Dhaka, at least five died who were identified as Dipali Saha, Kanchan, Joynal, Mozammel and Zafar.

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