The Guardian witnessed the Rapid Action Battalion, the elite unit of Bangladesh’s police forces, fire teargas from a helicopter on crowds below and army forces fire at protesters with what appeared to be light machine guns, leaving about 200 people dead and thousands injured. Analysis of footage from protest scenes by Amnesty International confirmed the use of teargas and lethal firearms – including shotguns, assault rifles and grenade launchers – by police and paramilitary forces against the unarmed protesters. On Thursday, the UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, called on the government of Bangladesh to carry out an independent investigation into the “horrific violence”.

The strength of the state-led crackdown has galvanised many on the ground to see the protest movement as no longer an issue of quotas, which were scaled back by the court on Sunday, but a growing civilian-led movement to bring down Hasina, who has ruled with an increasingly tyrannical grip since 2009.