Dhaka [Bangladesh], August 4 (ANI): As many as 76 people have been killed, including 13 police officers and dozens more were injured as a fresh round of violence rocked Bangladesh, Al Jazeera reported.
Bangladesh Police fired tear gas and lobbied stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Police and doctors reported these deaths on Sunday 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.
The Enayetpur police station in the northwest city of Sirajganj was attacked, according to Additional Deputy Inspector General Vijay Basak of the Bangladesh police. The identity of the attackers is unknown.
The demonstrators are demanding Hasina’s resignation after earlier protests that started with students calling for an end to a quota system in government jobs turned violent and killed 200 people.
Hasina said those who were engaging in the “sabotage” and the destruction in the name of protests were no longer students, but criminals, adding that the people should deal with them with iron hands, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Authorities have blocked internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Deaths were reported from at least 11 districts, including Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters, backed by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
Prapti Taposhi, a student activist who witnessed clashes with police, said the police were engaged in running battles with the demonstrators.
“I am on the street right now, and I can see so many people here. This is not just a student protest or a ‘quota protest’,” she said.
The government has now imposed an indefinite curfew that began at 6 pm (local time), although protesters have continued to gather at the Shaheed Minar monument in central Dhaka.
Protesters called for “non-cooperation”, 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, Al Jazeera reported.
A ‘March to Dhaka’ protest has also been moved from Tuesday to Monday, a coordinator for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ASD) said.
“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.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh government, announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts will remain closed for an indefinite period. Authorities also closed schools and universities across the country, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Mobile internet service was off on Sunday, while Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible even on broadband internet.
Bangladesh’s Junior Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Mohammad Ali Arafat, said mobile internet and messaging services were off to help prevent violence. He added that the government was acting “in a defensive position, not an offensive one.”
“These miscreants attacked our activists and leaders and unleashed violence,” Arafat said, adding that the government has “always opted for a peaceful solution” and “never wanted violence.”
The deadly protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 per cent 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 per cent of jobs, with 3 per cent for relatives of veterans.
But, despite that, the protests have continued, demanding accountability for the violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
According to Al Jazeera, the ongoing unrest, which spurred the government to shut down internet services, is its biggest test since January, when deadly protests erupted after Hasina’s Awami League won a fourth straight term in elections boycotted by the BNP.
The protests have now grown into a wider antigovernment movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Critics of Hasina, along with several rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement. The Awami League, however, denies the charge.
“We want the government to resign,” Jahirul Islam, a restaurant worker in Dhaka, said.
Dhaka-based political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman said that the government would be unlikely to resign “without bloodshed.”
“For the past two days, peaceful gatherings and demonstrations have taken place across the country demanding the government’s resignation,” Rahman said, explaining that the protests were peaceful because of the absence of Awami League activists on the streets.
However, once the ruling party’s activists went to confront the protesters, “they use gun[s] and violence to quell a popular uprising in front of the whole world,” Rahman said. (ANI)
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed of ANI; only the image & headline may have been reworked by News Services Division of World News Network Inc Ltd and Palghar News and Pune News and World News
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