Bangladesh, Aug. 5 -- When the calendar turned to August 5, 2024, Bangladeshis chose to call the day "36 July" instead, to mark a fresh start.

Advertisement The symbolic extension of a month marked by protests, bloodshed and political upheavals reflected a collective belief that the movement that began in July had not ended with the calendar.

By midday on August 5, hundreds of thousands of students, workers, professionals, party activists, and ordinary citizens had converged on the streets of Dhaka despite curfews and heavy security measures.

What had started weeks earlier as a student-led movement demanding reforms to the public-sector job-quota system evolved into one of the country's largest mass uprisings in decades.

Within hours...