Hello and welcome to the details of Bangladesh protests resume after ultimatum ignored and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Students detained over rallying against quotas in government jobs, look out from a prison van following their arrest by Bangladesh police personnel, along the street in Dhaka July 29, 2024. — AFP pic
DHAKA, July 30 — Bangladeshi students held scattered street protests yesterday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ignored an ultimatum to release their leaders and apologise for those killed in deadly unrest.
Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that killed at least 205 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.
The clashes were some of the worst of Hasina’s 15-year tenure, but her government has since largely restored order by deploying troops, imposing a curfew and shutting down the internet nationwide.
At least half a dozen leaders of Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, are among thousands since taken into police custody.
“The government is continuing to show complete and utter insensitivity to our movement,” Abdul Kader, one of the group’s coordinators, said in a statement.
“We are requesting all citizens of Bangladesh to show solidarity with our demands and join in our movement.”
Several protests were staged in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh yesterday, but they were only a fraction of the size of those seen earlier in the month.
Police charged with batons to break up one protest on Dhaka’s outskirts, arresting at least 20 people, newspaper Prothom Alo reported.
Security forces were deployed widely elsewhere in the teeming megacity of 20 million to deter other demonstrations.
Students Against Discrimination leaders had vowed to end a week-long moratorium on new demonstrations if police failed to release their leaders by Sunday evening.
The group’s demands also include a public apology from Hasina for the violence, the dismissal of several of her ministers, and the reopening of schools and universities around the country that were shuttered at the height of the unrest.
At least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began, according to Prothom Alo.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on was “concerned about reported mass arrests” as well as “emerging reports about the excessive use of force by security forces”, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said yesterday.
Troops are still patrolling urban areas, and a nationwide curfew remains in force, but it has been progressively eased since the start of last week.
Bangladesh’s mobile internet network was restored on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest, in another sign of the government’s confidence that it was in control of the situation.
‘Back to normalcy’
“The situation is turning back to normalcy thanks to the timely and appropriate measures taken by the government and the people,” the foreign ministry said in a Sunday statement.
Hasina’s government also declared a day of national mourning today for those who were killed during the unrest.
Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.
Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League.
The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs last week but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
The government has accused opposition parties of hijacking the protests to cause unrest.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters Sunday that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings. — AFP
These were the details of the news Bangladesh protests resume after ultimatum ignored for this day. We hope that we have succeeded by giving you the full details and information. To follow all our news, you can subscribe to the alerts system or to one of our different systems to provide you with all that is new.
It is also worth noting that the original news has been published and is available at Malay Mail and the editorial team at AlKhaleej Today has confirmed it and it has been modified, and it may have been completely transferred or quoted from it and you can read and follow this news from its main source.
