It had started as a student uprising. A few hundred youths had taken to the streets of Dhaka last July demanding a review of the system that awarded a large chunk of civil service jobs to the descendants of those who had fought the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. After days of protests, PM Sheikh Hasina decided to act by sending the youth wing of the Awami League, the ruling party, to the streets. The army is sent in to quell violent clashes between groups of young people.In the following days, street clashes continue, and hundreds of youths and even a hundred policemen remain on the ground. Thousands of people are arrested, the train station and even the national TV headquarters are set on fire. The government imposes a curfew, but demands are eventually met and the quota system is abolished. At this point, however, the student uprising becomes something different. The government's decision comes too late, is the official excuse-there have been too many deaths and too many arrests. Actually behind the movement, at this point, are the Islamic parties (and not even that well): the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is the major opposition party with never hidden sympathies for the terror international, and the Jamaat-i-Islami linked in knots to Pakistan and various terrorist organizations. Jihad flags begin to pop up among the demonstrators and 'Allah-o-Akhbar' can be heard shouted as the mob, demanding Sheikh Hasina's resignation, begins to systematically storm government buildings, police stations, and eventually the government palace. Sheikh Hasina, after nearly twenty years in power, is forced to flee to India. The generals take over and declare that they will preside over the formation of an interim government. Meanwhile, a frenzy of destruction and a pogrom against the Hindu minority breaks out in the country: houses and temples are attacked and set on fire, and hundreds and hundreds of people are forced into hiding or try to reach neighboring India. Demonstrators, the 'students' demanding democracy and freedom begin systematically demolishing statues of the quintessential symbol of the country's independence, Bangladesh's founding father Mujib Rahman: apparently guilty of being the father of the vituperative Sheikh Hasina. The post of interim prime minister, pending new elections, is offered to Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and father of the microcredit system. At this point, rhetoric (especially in the West) about freedom and tyranny is wasted: the students have overthrown the tyrant, freedom triumphs, Bangladesh is on its way to becoming a shining example of democracy. Unfortunately, this is not exactly the case. And revolution, as history teaches, is usually followed by Terror. The story goes something like this: in the two decades he has held power, Hasina has helped lift millions of people out of poverty, made Bangladesh a country in the midst of economic development, and eradicated a jihadist movement that once threatened to push the country into war. The prime minister, however, began to turn into the tyrants she had vituperated, arresting her opponents, violating human rights and free speech, and rigging elections. All true, but that is not all. According to Salah Uddin Shoaib Chaudry, a Bangladeshi expert on terrorism and editor of the daily Blitz, and according to many other Indian and Pakistani analysts, geopolitical maneuvers facilitated by the Americans and begun many months ago are behind the 'Bangladeshi spring' (which is supposed to recall the famous Arab spring of a few years ago). Apparently, they say, Sheikh Hasina refused to give in to Washington's pressure (and threats, they say) to install a military base in the country. Choudhury recalls that: “When a military-backed caretaker government came to power on Jan. 11, 2007, Hillary Clinton made frantic efforts to influence key figures in that government to consider Muhammad Yunus as the 'new leader of Bangladesh,' and to force Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia (Bnp leader) into withdrawal and forced exile.” The BBC reported on April 7, 2007 that “the army would sponsor Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus as the new leader.” And Yunus, in an interview granted months ago to Reuters, raised doubts about the regularity of the elections, saying they were “boycotted by the main opposition party, whose main leaders were jailed or in exile before the elections.” In fact, Khaleda Zia, has just been released by the army from the jail she was in for embezzling funds from an orphanage. While her son Tarique Rahman - the party's acting chairman - has been living in self-exile in the UK since 2007, as he faces two life sentences at home for his direct involvement in terrorist attacks against Sheikh Hasina and for his later foiled attempt to supply weapons and explosives to terrorist groups in India. Interestingly, the U.S. cancelled Sheikh Hasina's visa while Britain invoked international refugee law to deny asylum to the ex-premier.