police van transports protesters to the court, after their arrest in Dhaka on July 23, 2024. The number of arrests in days of violence in Bangladesh passed the 2,500 mark in an AFP tally on July 23, after protests over employment quotas sparked widespread unrest.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The number of arrests in days of violence in Bangladesh passed the 2,500 mark on July 23, after protests over employment quotas sparked widespread unrest.

At least 174 people have died, including several police officers, according to a separate count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed last week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew was imposed and soldiers deployed across the South Asian country. A nationwide Internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information.

The student group leading the demonstrations suspended its protests on Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.

Nahid Islam — who said he feared for his life — extended the halt on July 23 evening by another 48 hours, taking it to July 26.

Restrictions remained in place after the army chief said the situation had been brought “under control”.

The Telecommunications Minister said broadband Internet would be restored on Tuesday evening, although he made no mention of mobile Internet — a key communication method for protest organisers.

And officials said an afternoon break in the curfew would be extended to five hours on July 24 to help citizens obtain daily necessities, with banks re-opening for the first time.

There was a heavy military presence in Dhaka, with bunkers set up at some intersections and key roads blocked with barbed wire.

But more people were on the streets, as were hundreds of rickshaws.

“I did not drive rickshaws the first few days of curfew, But today I didn’t have any choice,” rickshaw driver Hanif said.

“If I don’t do it, my family will go hungry.”

Nahid, the head of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the protests, said there would be no protests during the 48-hour extension.

“Our demand is the government restore the internet, withdraw the curfew, reopen campuses and protect the students protesters”, he said, including “returning” four missing co-ordinators from his organisation.

While order has largely been restored across Bangladesh, Mubashar Hasan, a Sydney-based expert on Bangladeshi politics, told AFP the crackdown would further taint the government’s global image.

It would be “perceived further as a government that not only criminalises politics, it uses its own security forces to shoot down protesters, its own citizens”.

‘Killed at random’

The authorities’ response to the protests has been widely criticised.

“Young people are being killed at random every day. Hospitals do not reveal the number of wounded and dead,” Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus told AFP.

The respected 84-year-old economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but Hasina has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

The United Nations said it had expressed “serious concern” to Bangladesh authorities over “disturbing reports” of vehicles with UN markings being used during the crackdown. Bangladesh is a key contributor to UN peacekeeping missions and has such equipment in its military inventories.

Government officials have repeatedly blamed the protesters and opposition for the unrest.

More than 1,200 people were detained over the course of the violence— nearly half the 2,580 total— were held in Dhaka and its rural and industrial areas, according to police officials who spoke to AFP.

Almost 600 were arrested in Chittagong and its rural areas, with hundreds more detentions tallied in districts across the country.

Entrenched hold on power

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the June reintroduction of the quota scheme— halted since 2018— deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

With protests mounting, the Supreme Court curtailed on Sunday the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, mostly for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

The decision fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

Ms. Hasina’s spokesman told AFP late on July 22 she had approved a government order putting the Supreme Court’s judgement into effect.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s Awami League.

Ms. Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also 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.

The Bangladeshi student group leading demonstrations that have spiralled into deadly violence suspended protests Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.

What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.

“We are suspending the shutdown protests for 48 hours,” Nahid Islam, the top leader of the main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed.

He was being treated for his injuries after being beaten by people he accused of being undercover police, he said.

“We demand that during this period the government withdraws the curfew, restores the internet and stops targeting the student protesters.”

On Sunday, the Supreme Court pared back the number of reserved jobs for specific groups, including the descendants of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

“We started this movement for reforming the quota,” Islam said.

“But we did not want quota reform at the expense of so much blood, so much killing, so much damage to life and property.”

At least 163 people have died in clashes, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

Sporadic violence continued Monday, with four people brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet injuries, an AFP reporter at the scene saw.

Government officials have repeatedly blamed the protesters and opposition for the unrest.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP that “at least 532” people had been arrested in the capital since protests began, including some leaders of the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and leading Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University, described the violence as “the worst massacre by any regime since independence”.

“The atrocities committed in the past days show that the regime is entirely dependent on brute force and has no regard for the lives of the people,” he told AFP.

“These indiscriminate killings cannot be washed by a court ruling or a government announcement.”

Diplomatic questions

Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus urged “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence”.

“There must be investigations into the killings that have taken place already,” the 83-year-old said in a statement, his first public comments since the unrest began.

The respected economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but earned the enmity of Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

“Bangladesh has been engulfed in a crisis that only seems to get worse with each passing day,” Yunus said. “High school students have been among the victims.”

Diplomats in Dhaka questioned Bangladeshi authorities’ deadly response to the protests.

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud summoned ambassadors for a briefing on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video that sources said focused on damage caused by protesters.

US ambassador Peter Haas told Mahmud he was presenting a one-sided version of events, according to a senior diplomatic official.

“I am surprised you did not show the footage of police firing at unarmed protesters,” the source quoted Haas as telling the minister.

A US embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the ambassador’s comments.

The diplomatic source added that Mahmud did not respond to a question from a UN representative about the alleged use of UN-marked armoured personnel carriers and helicopters to suppress the protests.

Bangladesh is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world — earning significant revenues from its efforts — and has UN-marked equipment in its military inventories.

‘Freedom fighter’ quota

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the quota scheme’s reintroduction deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

The Supreme Court decision curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, most of which will still be set aside for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

While 93 percent of jobs will be awarded on merit, the decision fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Opponents accuse her government of bending the judiciary to its will.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also 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.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)