In a fresh round of violence in Bangladesh, nearly 91 have been killed and dozens injured as the police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse thousands of protesters, demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation following student demonstrations last month.
Deaths were reported by the police and doctors in 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 on Sunday.
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.
The government has now imposed an indefinite curfew that began at 6pm local time (1200 GMT), although protesters have continued to gather at the Shaheed Minar monument in central Dhaka.
What is Happening in Bangladesh Right Now?
On Sunday, the government announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts were to be closed indefinitely, while mobile internet services were cut off, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible.
As per a report by The Guardian, video footage on Sunday showed protesters vandalising a prison van at the chief metropolitan magistrates court in Dhaka. Other videos showed police opening fire on the crowds with bullets, rubber bullets and teargas. The protesters set fire to vehicles and the ruling party’s offices. Some carried sharp weapons and sticks, according to TV footage. At least 10,000 have been arrested in recent weeks over the violence.
What is the Government Saying?
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called an emergency meeting with university vice-chancellors and college principals on Saturday night amid heightened tensions. The Prime Minister held a “view-exchange meeting with the vice-chancellors of public and private universities, senior teachers and college principals at Ganobhaban (PM’s official residence),” a PMO spokesman said.
Without giving any detail, he said the meeting discussed the “overall situation created over the students’ campaign and the way out to overcome it”, while the teachers vowed to work in unison to “save the students from the clutches of the evil forces”.
The government leaders earlier said the students “peaceful campaign” was hijacked by fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and their student front Islami Chhatra Shibir being backed by ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s BNP.
In an executive order on Friday, the government banned Jamaat and its front organisations.
Why were Students Protesting in July?
Days after the Bangladesh High Court ruled to reinstate a 30% government job quota for relatives of war veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971 against Pakistan, protests began in the country on July 1.
Thousands of students from government and private universities in the country were protesting the quotas, fearing that they will be deprived of opportunities. While protesters support reservation for other marginalised groups like women, ethnic minorities and the disabled, the demand is that the quota of kin of freedom fighters be scrapped.
According to a report by Al-Jazeera, the protesters claim that they are not aligned with any political group. Fahim Faruki, a protester and third-year international relations student at Dhaka University, told the publication that students organised the protests through a Facebook group and were not backed by any political organisation.
On July 21, however, the Bangladesh Supreme Court cancelled the contentious civil service hiring rules but failed to mollify university student leaders. The ruling curtailed the number of reserved jobs, from 56% of all positions to 7%, but fell short of meeting protester demands.
How Did The July Protest Turn Violent?
PM Sheikh Hasina seemed to have irked some citizens by using the ‘Razakars’ during a press conference in July. ‘Razakar’ is a derogatory term used in Bangladesh for those collaborated with the Pakistan Army in the 1971 war, in act of treason.
She was asked about the student protests and the quota system, and she responded by saying, “If the grandchildren of freedom fighters do not receive [quota] benefits, who would get it? The grandchildren of Razakars?”
On July 14 night, thousands of students marched through the Dhaka University campus chanting the slogan, “Who are you? Who are you? I am Razakar, I am Razakar.” It is an adaptation of the famous chat during the Liberation War, “Who are we? Bengali”, according to a report in Scroll.in.
On July 15, student activists at the country’s largest Dhaka University clashed with the police and counter-protest inflamed the situation.
The students alleged the protests were peaceful until earlier this week, when the student wing of the ruling Awami League party attacked the protesters. Hundreds of people, including the police, have suffered injuries since.
At Jahangir Nagar University, demonstrators gathered in front of the vice-chancellor’s residence early Tuesday when they were attacked by Bangladesh Chhatra League activists and police, say witnesses. Over 50 people were treated at a nearby hospital, with at least 30 suffering pellet wounds.
On July 19, hundreds of protesters stormed the central Dhaka district of Narsingdi and freed over 850 inmates before setting fire to the facility, TV channels reported.
A “shoot-on-sight” order was also in place along with the curfew, giving security forces the authority to fire on mobs in extreme cases, said lawmaker Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party.
What is the Quota System?
The quota system not only reserves nearly a third of government jobs for family members of veterans of the 1971 war of independence, it also gives government jobs to women, disabled people and members of ethnic minorities.
This quota system was abolished in 2018 by Hasina after widespread protests in Bangladesh. The June 5 court order, which said the abolition was illegal, has again angered the youth. The Supreme Court then suspended that ruling pending an appeal hearing.
The protesters have called on the government to abolish the quota for being “discriminatory” against the students, struggling amid high unemployment in a country where some 32 million young people are not in work or education. Even though job opportunities have grown in some parts of the private sector, many people prefer government jobs because they are seen as more stable and lucrative.
Impact on Indian Students
As of now, a total of 778 Indian students have returned to India through various land ports. In addition, around 200 students have returned home by regular flight services through Dhaka and Chittagong airports.
“The High Commission of India in Dhaka and our Assistant High Commissions are in regular touch withmore than 4,000 students remaining in various universities in Bangladesh,” a latest update from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, with regard to the evacuation of Indians from Bangladesh.
On July 19, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that at least 15,000 Indian nationals were currently in Bangladesh and urged family members to track updates from Indian officials. “We remain committed to providing all possible assistance to our nationals in Bangladesh,” said Jaiswal.
Source: News18
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