July 19, 2024: A Midnight Arrest and a Curfew

At 11 PM, plainclothes officers abducted student coordinator Asif Mahmud from Hatirjheel. With internet cut off, news of his disappearance spread slowly and in fragments.

That same night, the ruling coalition held an emergency meeting. By midnight, a nationwide curfew was declared. The army was fully deployed. The government declared a two-day public holiday, hoping to suppress the momentum.

But something had shifted. The fear was real, but so was the resolve.