Communications blackout persists as deadly crackdown on demonstrators continues in the nation of 170 million.
Bangladesh enforced a nationwide curfew to quash student-led demonstrations against government job quotas with military personnel and police patrolling the largely deserted streets of the capital, Dhaka.
Dozens of people have been killed this week and several thousand are believed to have been injured, the Reuters news agency reported citing data from hospitals across the country. The Dhaka Medical College Hospital received 27 bodies on Friday, it said, as it put the death toll at 110 people.
The authorities have said about 300 police officers have been injured, blaming the protesters for damaging public property and violence, and accusing opposition parties of instigating the unrest.
Soldiers set up checkpoints on Saturday, shortly after the government ordered a curfew to block the protests – which have been further fuelled by economic insecurity – that sharply escalated this week.
The government continues to impose a near total internet blackout since Thursday on the nation of 170 million amid its crackdown on the student protesters. Text message services and overseas telephone calls remain disrupted.
The curfew was eased for two hours from noon on Saturday to allow people to shop for supplies, said Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, who confirmed hearing gunfire in Dhaka.
“The public is anxious as people didn’t expect the army to be deployed. But some people are also relieved because there is a great deal of respect for the army in Bangladesh,” he said.
“But the mood is just sombre because so many people died. People don’t understand why there was such a heavy crackdown on student protests that were peaceful.”
There has been no official confirmation on when the curfew will be lifted, but it is expected to remain in place at least until early Sunday.
The protests have been ongoing for weeks, but there has been a sharp increase in violence in the past three days.
The demonstrations started, and were initially peaceful, after the High Court on June 5 ordered the reinstatement of a quota that reserves 30 percent of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
But as the South Asian nation grapples with economic woes, including rising food prices and high unemployment particularly among the youth, many average citizens joined the protests.
“There are a lot of ordinary people who are supporting the students. There’s a great degree of frustration in the country right now and many people don’t accept this government and feel like the prime minister came to power by force,” said Al Jazeera’s Chowdhury.
The protests have been the largest threatening the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since her re-election for a fourth term earlier this year. She has cancelled planned trips to Spain and Brazil in order to deal with the fallout.
After the crackdown, the protesters have demanded accountability before agreeing to sit down with government representatives for talks. A state appeal to the Supreme Court suspended the reinstatement of the quota for a month, pending a hearing on August 7.
Meanwhile, many opposition party leaders – who had expressed support for the student protesters – have been arrested, along with activists and protest organisers.
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement on Saturday that it had facilitated the return of close to 1,000 Indian nationals from Bangladesh, and about 4,000 more students remaining in various universities are receiving consular assistance.
Source: AlJazeera
The curfew comes amid a telecommunications blackout that has left the country of 170 million cut off from the world.
Bangladesh has announced the imposition of a curfew and the deployment of military forces after days of clashes at protests against government job quotas across the country.
“The government has decided to impose a curfew and deploy the military in aid of the civilian authorities,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan, told the news agency AFP, adding that the curfew would take immediate effect.
Police in the capital, Dhaka, earlier banned all public gatherings for the day – a first since protests began – to forestall more violence.
However, that did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling city of 20 million people despite an internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.
Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said the introduction of the curfew, which began at midnight (18:00 GMT on Friday) will only add to the public’s confusion and a sense of unrest in the country.
“People weren’t able to go out the last two days because of the shutdown. Now you have a curfew, and the internet has been completely shut down since early yesterday [Thursday] evening,” he said.
Chowdhury said the government hopes to keep “students and the public off the street” with the curfew because it senses it is losing control of the protests.
He added that the protesters appeared to be in “no mood for compromise” while the government is “increasingly losing control of the situation on the street despite using paramilitary forces and police”.
The student protests erupted after the High Court on June 5 ordered the reinstatement of a 30 percent reservation of government jobs for children of veterans who participated in the country’s liberation movement in 1971.
Violent confrontations broke out on Monday after student protesters were attacked by activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party.
On Thursday, thousands of students clashed with armed police in Dhaka. At least 11 people were killed, including a bus driver and a student, police sources told Al Jazeera.
It was not immediately clear if there were deaths at the protests on Friday. Bangladesh’s Independent Television channel reported 17 more deaths on Friday. Somoy TV reported that 30 people were killed. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify these numbers.
The government has shut down all public and private universities and sent security forces onto campuses. It said it is willing to meet student leaders.
Demonstrators said they want accountability for the killings before they discuss a possible compromise with the government.
What’s behind Bangladesh’s violent quota protests?
Students demanding reforms in the quota system say they have come under attack from the government and its allies.
The two-week-long anti-quota protests in Bangladesh have turned violent after groups linked to the ruling party attacked student protesters in the capital, Dhaka.
More than 400 people were injured on Monday and Tuesday during attacks on protesters who are against the government job quota system amid rising unemployment in the South Asian nation.
The protests began on July 1 after the High Court reinstated the job quota that reserves one-third of civil service posts for children of fighters who participated in the country’s liberation movement in 1971.
So what triggered the current protests and why is the quota system facing opposition?
Who is protesting against job quotas in Bangladesh?
Students from government and private universities across Bangladesh are demanding reform in the conventional job quota system, under which more than half of much sought-after government jobs are reserved.
The protesters said they are not aligned with any political group and they want a merit-based system that is fair to all.
Fahim Faruki, a protester and third-year international relations student at Dhaka University, said the students organised the protests through a Facebook group and were not backed by any political organisation.
The protest movement has come to be known as the Students Against Discrimination movement. Thousands of students from Dhaka University in the capital as well as Chittagong University have staged sit-ins against the quota system.
What triggered the recent protests?
On June 5, the High Court ordered the reinstatement of the 30 percent quota for children of freedom fighters, deeming the 2018 abolition of quotas illegal. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League had abolished the quota system after massive protests.
On Wednesday, students from Dhaka University blocked major intersections and the police precinct in Shahbagh, a popular square in Dhaka. The student-led blockade of Shahbagh square continued for days.
What is the quota system in Bangladesh?
In 1972, the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, introduced a quota system, reserving a percentage of government jobs for children and grandchildren of people who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Under the system, 44 percent of first- and second-class government jobs are “merit” based.
The remaining 56 percent are reserved for specific communities:
- 30 percent for the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters
- 10 percent for women
- 10 percent “zila quota” for “backward” districts
- 5 percent for ethnic minorities
- 1 percent for people with physical disabilities
What do the anti-quota protesters want?
The anti-quota protesters are demanding the 30 percent quota for children of freedom fighters be abolished.
They support reserving jobs for ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.
“Our protest is not against the quota system. It is instead for the reformation of the system,” Faruki said.
Another protester, Ayan*, 23, who is also an international relations major at Dhaka University, concurred, saying they do not want the quota system to be abolished altogether but want the percentage of jobs reserved to be lowered.
How has the government responded?
The government has deployed riot police who fired tear gas and charged with batons on Tuesday during violent clashes between the protesters and a pro-government student group. Paramilitary troops were also deployed across several districts amid heightened tensions.
On Thursday, student protesters from the public Comilla University, southeast of Dhaka, clashed with police, who opened fire, local media reported. Twenty people, including students and three policemen, were injured as a result, local media reported.
Ruling party leaders and ministers have tried to paint the protesters as anti-nationals and against the government after Hasina, who has been in power since 2009, referred to them as “Razakars”.
In Bangladesh, Razakar is an offensive term that refers to those who betrayed Bangladesh in the 1971 war by collaborating with Pakistan.
“Why do they have so much resentment towards freedom fighters? If the grandchildren of the freedom fighters don’t get quota benefits, should the grandchildren of Razakars get the benefit?” she asked at a news conference on Sunday.
In response, protesters chanted the slogan, “Who are you? Who am I? Razakar, Razakar,” during a protest at Dhaka University.
A student leader quoted in a local media outlet said the slogan was chosen by students in response to the government’s efforts to discredit their movement.
Asif Nazrul, a law professor at Dhaka University, told Al Jazeera that the message the students intended to convey through their slogans was clear. “I doubt any student at Dhaka University would identify themselves as Razakar,” he said.
Nazrul also criticised the government’s response, suggesting it was eager to suppress the protests and had found a convenient pretext to do so.
How many people have been killed and injured in the protests?
At least five people have been killed, police officials said.
As of Tuesday, more than 400 people were injured, and 297 were treated at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the AFP news agency reported.
Were there clashes between protesters and Chhatra League?
The protesters have blamed the ruling party’s student wing, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), for the violence. Faruki said BCL members summoned protesters inside the university hostel before the attack.
“They surrounded us from the high buildings and pelted us with stones and small brick parts. Many students were injured.”
Faruki added that the BCL was armed, leaving the protesters helpless against them.
“We were unarmed. How will we get arms?”
The student protesters said they were not safe from the BCL in hospitals either. “The student league went inside the [Dhaka Medical College] Hospital and attacked there,” Faruki alleged.
Ayan was at the hospital’s emergency ward after several of his friends were injured and said no security or police protected the protesters from the BCL.
On the other hand, BCL President Saddam Hossain said more than 100 of its leaders and activists were injured in the violence, the Anadolu Agency reported. Hossain insisted that the student body had been provoked.
“Those who openly identify as ‘Razakar’ must face consequences. Such individuals have no place in this country, and we have decided to politically confront the students protesting quota reforms,” he said during a media briefing on Monday.
Protests continued on Tuesday, disrupting traffic in Dhaka.
“We are not going to leave the protests until our demands are fulfilled,” Ayan said.
Surce: AlJazeera