Bangladesh students protest again for release of leaders

Bangladesh I Violent student protests A few days later, a group has signaled to return to the streets if their leaders are not released.

At least 205 people were killed last week in violent protests over job quotas, according to the AFP news agency.

The protests are taking place against a 30 percent quota in civil service jobs for relatives of ex-servicemen who took part in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war.

Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place after more than a week, and police have jailed thousands of protesters, including at least half a dozen student leaders.

Soldiers stand guard on a road during curfew in Dhaka July 23, 2024 (AFP)

Against this discrimination, the student members said they would protest again against this ‘injustice’.

Abdul Hanan Masood told reporters in an online briefing that the group’s leader, Naheed Islam, and others should remain free and the cases against them should be withdrawn.

Abdul Hanan Masoud, a fugitive from the police, held the government ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of the protesters and demanded legal action against them.

He said that otherwise the students would be forced to start protest again from Monday against this discrimination.

Student leader Naheed Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were forcibly discharged from a hospital in the capital Dhaka on Friday and taken to an undisclosed location by plainclothes security personnel.

Naheed Islam told AFP on Saturday that she was being treated in hospital because police had tortured and injured her during the first detention and that her life was in danger.

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Meanwhile, Interior Minister Asad-ul-Zaman Khan told reporters on Friday that the three leaders were detained for their own safety, but did not confirm whether they had been formally arrested.

Police told AFP on Sunday that government officials had detained two other student leaders, while an activist with the organization Students Against Discrimination told AFP that a third leader was also picked up early Sunday morning. has gone

According to Bangladesh’s largest daily Pratham Alu, at least 9,000 people have been arrested across the country since the protests began.

While the curfew imposed last week remains unchanged, it has been gradually relaxed during this week.

Protesters are taken away in a police van in Dhaka on July 23, 2024 (AFP)

On the other hand, Telecommunication Minister Junaid Ahmed Palak told reporters that the nationwide blackout on the country’s mobile internet network has been partially restored on Sunday after 11 days.

Fixed-line broadband connections were restored on Tuesday, but the majority of Bangladesh’s more than 140 million internet users rely on mobile to connect to the world, according to the national telecoms regulator.

According to Reuters news agency, following protests, the Supreme Court rejected the High Court’s decision to restore the 56 percent quota in government jobs abolished in 2018, reducing the quota for various sectors to 7 percent.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s government announced on Tuesday to implement the Supreme Court’s decision.