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Just over a year ago, after Sheikh Hasina, the autocratic leader of Bangladesh, had unleashed a brutal crackdown on protesting students, Abu Sayed stood defiantly in front of armed police officers in the city of Rangpur, his arms outstretched.
Moments later he was hit by bullets and later died from his injuries, his family said. He was one of almost 1,400 to die in a mass uprising that toppled Ms. Hasina’s 15-year rule.
Ms. Hasina later fled to India. She left behind a country on the brink of anarchy, but one also suffused with hope.
The students wanted to rebuild Bangladesh as a more equitable and less corrupt democracy. They helped install Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist, atop an interim government tasked with leading the nation out of chaos into stability.
But many Bangladeshis are frustrated with the slow pace of change, wondering whether protesters like Mr. Sayed sacrificed their lives in vain.
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