Bangladesh Around 100 people were killed and hundreds injured in violent anti-government protests on Sunday, after the government reimposed a curfew in major cities, including the capital Dhaka.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a leading Bengali-language newspaper, Protom Aloo reported that at least 95 people were killed, including 14 police officers. Channel 24 reported at least 85 deaths.
The army has announced that curfew has been reimposed for an indefinite period from Sunday evening in other divisional and regional headquarters including Dhaka.
The protesters are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while the Prime Minister is accusing them of ‘sabotage’.
The government has shut down mobile phone service and the internet to contain the unrest, and access to Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, is not possible.
Junior Minister of Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Arafat said on Sunday that various services have been suspended to help prevent violence.
The government has declared a holiday from Monday to Wednesday while the courts will remain closed indefinitely.
Last month, students started a protest demanding an end to the quota system in government jobs, which later turned into violent protests and has so far resulted in over 200 deaths.
Amid the fresh wave of violence, Sheikh Hasina said that the protesters involved in ‘vandalism’ and destruction were no longer students but criminals. He said that people should deal with them with iron hands.
The ruling Awami League says the demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation shows that the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami have taken over the protests.
In Dhaka’s Uttara area, police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who had blocked a major highway.
Protesters attacked houses and ransacked the community welfare office in the area, where hundreds of ruling party workers took up positions.
Eyewitnesses say that a few explosions of improvised explosive devices and gunshots were heard. 20 people were shot in the eastern region.
At least 18 people lost their lives in the northwestern district of Sirajganj. According to the police headquarters in Dhaka, this number includes 13 policemen who were killed in the attack on the police station by the protesters.
Another officer died in eastern Comilla district, police said. Five people were killed in clashes between supporters of Hasina Wajid and protesters in Fani district of southeastern Bangladesh.
At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks in Bangladesh. Schools and universities across the country were closed as a result of the unrest, while authorities at one point ordered a shoot-on-sight curfew.
The protesters called for ‘non-cooperation’ with the government, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to come to work on Sunday, which is a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced difficulties in getting to work.
Demonstrators attacked Bangladesh Sheikh Mujib Medical University, a major government hospital in Dhaka’s Shah Bagh area, and torched several vehicles.
According to the news agency AFP, these deaths occurred in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogra, Pabna and Rangpur, Magura in the west, Comilla in the east and Barisal and Feni in the south.
Police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands of protesters.
Two laborers were killed and 30 injured during clashes between protesters, police and ruling party workers in the central Mansiganj district, British news agency Reuters reported.
District Hospital Superintendent Abu Hina Muhammad Jamal said that ‘the workers were brought to the hospital dead after being shot.’
Police say they did not fire any shots, but when some improvised explosive devices went off, the area turned into a battlefield.
At least three people were killed and 50 injured during clashes between protesters and activists of Hasina Wajid’s ruling party Awami League in the northeastern district of Pabna, eyewitnesses said.
Two more people died in the violence in the northern district of Bogora, while five people were killed in four other districts, hospital officials said.
According to the French news agency AFP Protesters A large number of them are armed with sticks, against the government crackdown and for more concessions All-out protest are
Asif Mehmood, the main leader of the nationwide protest and civil disobedience campaign, has told supporters to ‘be ready to fight’.
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Asif Mehmood wrote on Facebook on Sunday: ‘Get the sticks ready and make Bangladesh free.’
Meanwhile, the head of the country’s army has said that the army has always stood with the people and will continue to do so in the future.
After the protests, some former army officers joined the student movement, while former Army Chief General Iqbal Karim turned his Facebook profile picture red in support of the protests.
Current Army Chief General Waqar-ul-Zaman, while talking to officers at the military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday, said that ‘Bangladesh Army is a symbol of the people’s trust.’
A statement issued by the army said: ‘The army has always stood with the people and will continue to do so for the sake of the people and in the need of the state.’
The statement did not give further details and it was not clear whether the army was supporting the protest movement.
The army briefly restored order with a curfew, but this week protesters returned to the streets in large numbers in a non-cooperation movement aimed at paralyzing the government.
When lakhs of protesters marched in Dhaka on Saturday, the police did not take any action against them.
The anti-government students had announced a nationwide civil disobedience on Saturday after a heavy police crackdown on the protesters, appealing to the public not to cooperate with the government.
After Friday prayers, a large number of people took to the streets to demand student leaders pressurize the government for more concessions.
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the initial protests, urged their compatriots to start a movement of total non-cooperation with the government from Sunday.
Asif Mahmood, a member of the group, told AFP on Saturday, “This includes non-payment of taxes and utility bills, strikes by civil servants and the suspension of overseas remittances by banks.”
Mahmood’s fellow student leaders also said that nationwide rallies would be held again.
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2024-08-05 03:09:08
