At least 76 people were killed, including 14 police officers, and dozens more injured in a new round of violence in Bangladesh over the weekend, as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades at tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The deaths were reported by the police and doctors on Sunday in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogura, Pabna and Rangpur, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.
The attack on the police took place at the Enayetpur police station in the northwest city of Sirajganj, according to Additional Deputy Inspector General Vijay Basak of the Bangladesh police.
Thirteen police officers were killed when thousands of people attacked the police station.
The demonstrators are demanding Hasina’s resignation after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs and escalated into violence that killed 200 people.
Hasina said those who were engaging in the ‘sabotage’ and the destruction in the name of protests were no longer students, but criminals, and said the people should deal with them with ‘iron hands’.
Authorities have blocked internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Deaths were reported from at least 11 districts including Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
The situation is volatile and dangerous, with the protesters saying that they are not going to move, until the government steps down.
People are extremely worried about what’s going to happen, with the crowd of protesters growing, and there were more clashes between the protesters and supporters of the Awami League.
Prapti Taposhi, a student activist who witnessed clashes with police, said the police were engaged in running battles with the demonstrators.
‘I am on the street right now, and I can see so many people here. This is not just a student protest or a “quota protest”,’ she said.
The government imposed an indefinite curfew at 6.00pm on Saturday although protesters continued to gather at the Shaheed Minar monument in central Dhaka.
They called for ‘noncooperation’, and urged people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday – a working day in Bangladesh.
Offices, banks and factories opened but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.
A ‘March to Dhaka’ protest was organised for yesterday (Monday).
‘This means we are urging students and the public nationwide to start their journey to Dhaka to lay siege to the city,’ Asif Mahmud, a coordinator for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ASD) said on Saturday.
The government, meanwhile, announced a holiday from yesterday (Monday) to tomorrow (Wednesday).
Courts will remain closed for an indefinite period. Authorities also closed schools and universities across the country.
Mobile internet service was off on Sunday, while Facebook and messaging apps including WhatsApp were inaccessible even on broadband internet.
Junior Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mohammad Ali Arafat, said mobile internet and messaging services were off to ‘help prevent violence’.
Arafat added that the government was acting ‘in a defensive position, not an offensive one’.
‘These miscreants attacked our activists and leaders and unleashed violence,’ Arafat said, adding that the government has ‘always opted for a peaceful solution’ and ‘never wanted violence’.
The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
As violence intensified, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to five per cent of jobs, with three per cent for relatives of veterans.
Protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
The unrest, which spurred the government to shut down internet services, is its biggest test since January when deadly protests erupted after Hasina’s Awami League won a fourth straight term in elections boycotted by the BNP.
The protests have now grown into a wider anti-government movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Critics of Hasina, along with several rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement, a charge it denies.
‘We want the government to resign,’ said Jahirul Islam, a restaurant worker in Dhaka.
Dhaka-based political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman said that the government would be unlikely to resign ‘without bloodshed.
‘For the past two days, peaceful gatherings and demonstrations have taken place across the country demanding the government’s resignation,’ Rahman said, explaining that the protests were peaceful because of the absence of Awami League activists on the streets.
However, once the ruling party’s activists went out to confront the protesters ‘they use guns and violence to quell a popular uprising in front of the whole world’, Rahman said.
- At least 32 children have died during the student protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the United Nations children’s agency has said.
The youngest child killed had yet to turn five years old, a Unicef spokesperson said, adding that most of those who died were bystanders.
They were among more than 200 people who were killed during the demonstrations against job quotas in the civil service.
‘Why are our brothers in graves and the killers outside?’ asked a crowd which had gathered outside the largest mosque in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, following Friday prayers last week.
Security forces responded to the thousands who filled the streets with tear gas and rubber bullets and at least 20 people were injured.
Sanjay Wijesekera, Unicef’s regional director for south Asia, said he had been made aware of reports of children being detained during a visit to Bangladesh this week.
He added that the 32 deaths the organisation had confirmed were ‘a terrible loss’.
A spokesman for the UN agency said most of those killed were aged 13 or older, with one under five and one child aged between six and 12.
‘Children must be protected at all times,’ Wijesekera said. ‘That is everyone’s responsibility.’
Bangladeshi junior Information Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat responded that the government had no information regarding Unicef’s death toll.
‘We don’t know where they (Unicef) got the numbers from,’ he said, adding: ‘Our position is clear: Whoever has been killed, we are going to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book.’
Security forces have been accused of using excessive force to quell the initial protests, with many of the dead and injured suffering gunshot wounds, according to doctors.
But the government – which has said a number of police officers were also killed – has blamed political opponents for the unrest.
In a joint statement released last Friday, the students questioned the grounds on which they were were being arrested and held.
‘No one is safe in the custody of those who kill unarmed students and citizens,’ the statement said, as it urged people to continue taking to the streets.
Nearly 10,000 people have reportedly been detained since the authorities began their crackdown on the protests.
