Dr. Md. Enamul Haque, in an article published on January 26, 2026, reflects on Bangladesh’s 2024 mass uprising, which he says cost thousands of lives and injuries but did not bring structural change. He writes that despite the public’s demand for accountability and balance of power, the state’s core machinery remained intact, with only faces changing in government. The author identifies a persistent 'deep state'—a network of military and civilian bureaucracy, security agencies, economic oligarchs, foreign-linked lobbies, and media influence—that operates beyond elected authority.
According to Haque, this deep state neutralized the uprising through delay tactics, narrative control, and preservation of administrative continuity. Promised reforms, investigations, and rehabilitation remained largely declarative, while the same bureaucratic and security structures continued to dominate. He argues that no meaningful accountability, electoral reform, or economic transparency followed the movement.
The article concludes that real transformation requires dismantling entrenched power habits through transparency, decentralization, and institutional reform. Without such change, Haque warns, future uprisings will repeat the same cycle of sacrifice without systemic progress.