At least 52 people have been killed, as well as 13 police officers, and dozens more injured in a new wave of protests in Bangladesh.
This came as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets to ask Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
The deaths were reported by the police and doctors on Sunday, August 4, 2024, in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogura, Pabna and Rangpur, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.
Deaths were reported from at least 11 districts including Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the main opposition party, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
Protesters called for “noncooperation,” urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh.
Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.
Mobile internet service was off on Sunday, while Facebook and messaging apps including WhatsApp were inaccessible even on broadband internet.
Junior Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mohammad Ali Arafat said that mobile internet and messaging services were off to help prevent violence.
The government has now imposed an indefinite curfew that began at 6pm local time (12:00 GMT), although protesters have continued to gather at the Shaheed Minar monument in central Dhaka.
The demonstrators are demanding Hasina’s resignation after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs and escalated into violence that killed 200 people.
The deadly protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
As violence intensified, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to 5 percent of jobs, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans.
But protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
A ‘March to Dhaka’ protest has also been moved from Tuesday to Monday, a coordinator for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ASD) told Al Jazeera.
“This means we are urging students and the public nationwide to start their journey to Dhaka tomorrow to lay siege to the city,” the coordinator, Asif Mahmud, said.
The government, meanwhile, announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts will remain closed for an indefinite period. Authorities also closed schools and universities across the country.
Hasina Calls For Protestors To Be Dealt With Iron Hands
Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said that those who were engaging in the “sabotage” and the destruction in the name of protests were no longer students, but criminals, adding that they should be dealt with iron hands.
Seventy-six-year-old Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009. She won her fourth consecutive election in January this year, after an election without genuine opposition.
The rights groups have accused her government of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Illinois State University politics professor, Ali Riaz opined, “Now the tables have turned.”
“The regime’s foundation has been shaken, the aura of invincibility has disappeared…The question is whether Hasina is ready to look for an exit or fight to the last,” he added.
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