SWAT deployed in Bangladesh as civil servants enter their fourth day of protest, forcing a shutdown of key ministries. The chaos follows the government’s attempt to enforce the Public Service (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 — a law that allows for firing officials without formal inquiry.
With SWAT deployed and Border Guards on alert, daily administrative work has collapsed in Dhaka. Citizens needing essential documents, permits, or government services are stuck in limbo.
It’s not just paperwork that’s frozen — it’s trust in the system.
What sparked this fire?
The trigger? A new law that lets the interim government sack civil servants without due process. The Public Service (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, which quietly altered the 2018 Public Service Act, introduced new “misconduct” clauses that critics call vague and dangerous.
The law quickly earned the nickname “black law.” Protesters argue it violates constitutional rights. Officials across ministries united under the Bangladesh Secretariat Officers and Employees Coordination Council and marched inside the Secretariat. Offices shut. Tensions rose.
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SWAT outside. Anger inside.
With growing crowds and chants echoing through Dhaka’s power corridor, the government brought in SWAT and Border Guards. Their job? Stop the unrest from spilling over.
Ongoing protests inside the Bangladesh Secretariat. Illegal Yunus regime attempted to sack all of these government employees and replace them with Islamists and jihadists. Bangladesh fights back against foreign mercenaries like Yunus and his key aides. pic.twitter.com/vQfp3oL9bI
— Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury (@salah_shoaib) May 27, 2025
Talks began today, and by afternoon, protests were briefly called off after government negotiators promised a review of the law. But no repeal. Not yet.
As one official put it: “We’re civil servants, not soldiers. But if they treat us like threats, we’ll act like a movement.”
Behind the curtain: A fragile regime
The real story isn’t just this law. It’s the fear behind it.
Since Sheikh Hasina’s ousting in 2024, Bangladesh has been run by a Yunus-led interim government — unelected, unpopular, and now, increasingly unstable. Army top brass are also raising eyebrows. Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman warned last week that “unelected decisions” threaten national security.
The military wants elections by December 2025, but the government seems reluctant. There’s disagreement over key policies too — like a controversial Myanmar corridor, foreign control of Chattogram Port, and even the launch of Starlink internet by Elon Musk.
And now, the bureaucrats have joined the chorus: enough is enough.
Civil servants, the engine of government, are rising. SWAT is deployed. The streets are tense. And Bangladesh, once again, is stuck between power struggles and public frustration.
A black law may have lit the match, but a broken system is what’s burning.
