Arrests following Bangladesh protest violence exceed 2,500

DHAKA – 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.

At least 174 people died, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP 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 were deployed across the country, and a nationwide internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information.

The student group leading the demonstrations suspended protests on July 22 for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.

The restrictions remained in place on July 23 after the army chief said the situation was “under control”.

The telecommunications minister said broadband internet would be restored on the evening of July 23, although he made no mention of mobile internet – a key communication method for protest organisers.

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 during the first few days of curfew, But today, I don’t have any choice,” rickshaw driver Hanif said. “If I don’t do it, my family will go hungry.”

The head of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the protests, said in his hospital room on July 22 that he feared for his life after being abducted and beaten.

The group said on July 23 that at least four of its leaders were missing, asking the authorities to “return” them by the evening.

Mr Mubashar Hasan, a Sydney-based expert on Bangladeshi politics, said 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 said.

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

The United Nations said it had expressed “serious concern” to the Bangladeshi 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.

Diplomats in Dhaka questioned the government’s actions, with US Ambassador Peter Haas telling the foreign minister he had shown a one-sided video at a briefing to diplomats.

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

More than 1,200 people detained over the course of the violence – nearly half of the 2,580 total – were held in Dhaka and its rural and industrial areas, police officials said.

Almost 600 were arrested in Chittagong and its rural areas, with hundreds more detentions tallied in multiple 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.

As protests mounted across the country, the Supreme Court on July 21 curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 per cent of all positions to 7 per cent, 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.

On July 22, Ms Hasina’s spokesman said the Prime Minister had approved a government order putting the Supreme Court’s judgment into effect.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of her ruling Awami League.

Ms Hasina, 76, has been in power 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 by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists. AFP