In Dhaka, two female students stood guard outside Dhanmondi 32. They were monitoring who was coming in and going out, to protect the remnants of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's historic residence, the hero of the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan and the father of the ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. When the "iron begum" fled on Monday, August 5, protesters attacked symbols of power.

After 15 years of increasingly autocratic "rule," culminating in the blood-soaked suppression of a student movement in July – resulting in over 400 deaths – the crowds were thirsty for revenge. They did not spare the legacy of "Mujib," Rahman's nickname. Statues bearing his likeness were toppled across the country, and his iconic personal residence that had been transformed into a museum was set on fire. Within the charred walls, only piles of ash and shattered glass remain.

The flames swept away an entire section of the country's history. It was here that the father of independence was assassinated with his family by a coup commando in 1975. Hasina and her sister were the only survivors of this massacre, as they were in Germany at the time. "I'm ashamed that they destroyed our country's history just as we were writing a new chapter," said Jahan Afroze Tanisha, a high-school senior. She was sorting through the books that escaped the fire to return them to the government. "We want justice, not destruction, and it's our duty to restore the house of the nation's father," she said, drenched in sweat.

"This house belongs to everyone," said another.

Around 10 people were busy working their way through the rubble. "Clean-up campaign by the Students Against Discrimination movement. We are Generation Z," proudly declared a poster in Bengali and English displayed outside. On July 1, the Students Against Discrimination coalition launched the protests that resulted in Hasina's downfall. Initially, the students were protesting against a quota system in public service recruitment, but the movement quickly gained momentum. As the interim government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took office on Thursday, August 8, young people are trying to get Dhaka back on its feet after weeks of violence.

Whistles echoed from all directions in the notoriously congested streets in the megacity of 22 million inhabitants. Baton in hand, and with a headband in the colors of the Bangladeshi flag tied around her head like a warrior, a young woman bravely stepped in front of a huge rickety bus, to help pedestrians cross the road. The police have disappeared from the landscape of the Bangladeshi capital. Yesterday's revolutionary students are now keeping unruly citizens in check. One unbuckled seatbelt is enough to be reprimanded. After taking part in the brutal repression of the student revolution, the police were the victims of violent reprisals on Monday night. Since then, they have gone into hiding, refusing to return to duty.

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