The western media romanticised the coup as a successful student revolution. In reality, it had all the markings of yet another regime change operation by the USA.

This article discusses the reason that sparked the protests in Bangladesh, how the protestors shifted goal posts and escalated the violence leading to the coup, and the reality vs the western media portrayal of the coup.

The official narrative was that Bangladeshi students peacefully demonstrated against a High Court ruling on civil service jobs quota. 

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government appealed the decision at the country's apex court and successfully got the ruling dismissed. However, violent protests continued even after the High Court decision that precipitated the agitation was overturned by the Supreme Court on 21 July.

Following the June 5th controversial high court job quotas ruling that sparked the student protest, on the 16th of July, Hasina's government filed a leave-to-appeal petition with the Supreme Court. This was just 2 days after the High Court formally published its full verdict on job quotas. The supreme court was set to hear the government's appeal on the 7th of August.

The protests should have ended right away on the 16th of July if it was really about job quotas and if it were really unarmed peaceful students upset about the high court ruling on job quotas. But the protests did not stop on the 16th of July. Protestors set the headquarters of the national broadcaster ablaze while many people were trapped in the building. They also torched the vehicles outside the office of the Disaster Management Directorate and set fire to police vehicles preventing them from rendering help. 

Since the violent agitation did not let-up, Hasina's Attorney General prayed to the Chief Justice of the country's apex court to move the hearing up on Sunday, the 21st of July. On the 21st of July, the Bangladesh government successfully got the Supreme Court to dismiss the High Court order on job quotas.