Soldiers were patrolling Bangladeshi cities on July 20 to quell growing civil unrest sparked by student demonstrations, with riot police firing on protesters who defied a government curfew.

This week’s violence has killed at least 123 people so far, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, and poses a monumental challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government after 15 years in office.

A government curfew went into effect at midnight and the premier’s office asked the military to deploy troops after police again failed to subdue widespread mayhem.

“The Army has been deployed nationwide to control the law and order situation,” armed forces spokesman Shahdat Hossain told AFP.

The curfew will remain in effect until at least 10:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on July 21, private broadcaster Channel 24 reported.

Streets in the capital Dhaka were almost deserted at daybreak, with troops on foot and in armoured personnel carriers patrolling the sprawling megacity of 20 million.

But thousands returned to the streets later in the day in the residential neighbourhood of Rampura, with police firing at the crowd and wounding at least one person.

“Our backs are to the wall,” protester Nazrul Islam, 52, told AFP at the scene. “There’s anarchy going on in the country… They are shooting at people like birds.”

Hospitals have reported a growing number of gunshot deaths to AFP since July 18.

“Hundreds of thousands of people” had battled police across the capital on July 19, police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.

“At least 150 police officers were admitted to hospital. Another 150 were given first aid treatment,” he said, adding that two officers had been beaten to death.

“The protesters torched many police booths… Many government offices were torched and vandalised.”

Staff at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital told AFP that another two police officers were killed on July 21, while four people admitted to intensive care succumbed to their injuries.

Two more protesters were killed in the industrial town of Savar on Dhaka’s outskirts, a major centre of Bangladesh’s garment exports.

Enam Medical College Hospital spokesman Zahidur Rahman confirmed the latter deaths to AFP, adding that “nine people came here with bullet wounds”.

A spokesman for Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the protests, told AFP that two of its leaders had been arrested since July 19.

Ms. Hasina had been due to leave the country on July 21 for a planned diplomatic tour but abandoned her plans after a week of escalating violence.

“She has cancelled her Spain and Brazil tours due to the prevailing situation,” her press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan told AFP.

‘Not about students anymore’

Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Critics say the scheme benefits families loyal to Ms. Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Ms. Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Since the first deaths on July 16, protesters have begun demanding Ms. Hasina leave office.

“It’s not about the rights of the students anymore,” business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, told AFP at the scene of the Rampura protest.

“We are here as the general public now,” he added. “Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government.”

‘Shocking indictment’

Pierre Prakash of Crisis Group told AFP the lack of competitive elections since Ms. Hasina took office had led to mounting public frustration.

“With no real alternative at the ballot box, discontented Bangladeshis have few options besides street protests to make their voices heard,” he said.

“The rising death toll is a shocking indictment of the absolute intolerance shown by the Bangladeshi authorities to protest and dissent,” Babu Ram Pant of Amnesty International said in a statement.

Authorities imposed a nationwide internet shutdown on July 18 that remains in effect, severely hampering communication in and out of Bangladesh.

Government websites remain offline and major newspapers including the Dhaka Tribune and Daily Star have been unable to update their social media platforms since July 18.

Bangladesh Television, the state broadcaster, also remains offline after its Dhaka headquarters was set on fire by protesters the same day.

Students block a rail track as they protest to demand a merit-based system for civil service jobs in Dhaka on July 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Bangladesh’s top court on July 10 temporarily suspended quotas for coveted government jobs after thousands of students staged nationwide protests against what they call a discriminatory system, lawyers said.

The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid and massively over-subscribed civil service posts, totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs, for specific groups including children of liberation heroes.

Students launched protests earlier this month, demanding a merit-based system, with demonstrations on Wednesday blocking highways and railway lines.

“We will not return to classrooms until our demand is met,” protest leader Rasel Ahmed of Chittagong University told AFP.

The quota system was abolished in 2018 after weeks of protests, but reinstated in June by Dhaka’s High Court, sparking fury from students.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended that order for a month, said lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque, who represents two students seeking to end the quota system.

Mr. Hoque said that Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan had also requested that students return to class.

Despite the call, student groups continued to block key highways and railway tracks, bringing traffic movement in much of the capital Dhaka and several major cities to a halt.

“This (court) order is temporary. We want a permanent executive order from the government, saying that the quotas are abolished, except some quotas for the disabled and minorities,” said Parvez Mosharraf, a student at Dhaka University.

He was among dozens of students who laid timber logs on a railway track at Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar, forcing the halt of train services connecting the capital to northern Bangladesh.

‘Limited number of jobs’

The quota system reserves 30% of government posts for children of those who fought to win Bangladeshi independence in 1971, 10% for women, and 10% for residents of specific districts.

Students said only those quotas supporting ethnic minorities and disabled people — 6% of jobs — should remain.

“We don’t also want the job quotas for women because women are no longer lagging behind,” female student Meena Rani Das, 22, said.

“Women are marching ahead with their talents. But the quota system is creating obstacles and snatching our rights.”

Critics say the system benefits children of pro-government groups, who back Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was Bangladesh’s founding leader.

Ms. Hasina, 76, won her fourth consecutive general election in January, in a vote without genuine opposition parties, with a widespread boycott and a major crackdown against her political opponents.

Critics accuse Bangladeshi courts of rubber-stamping decisions made by her government.

Ms. Hasina has condemned the protests, saying the matter had been settled by the court.

“Students are wasting their time,” Ms. Hasina said on Sunday, adding there was “no justification for the anti-quota movement”.

Thousands of students on Wednesday threw up barricades across key intersections in Dhaka, as well as blocking major highways connecting the capital to other cities, police said.

Hemayetul Islam, deputy police chief in the northwestern city of Rajshahi said that “at least 200 students” blocked the highway to Dhaka.

“Brilliant students no longer get the jobs they want because of this quota system,” said Halimatuz Sadia, a protester and physics student at Chittagong University.

“You work hard only to find out that there are only a limited number of jobs available,” she added.