DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh observed a day of mourning on Tuesday for more than 200 people killed in recent weeks in violence fueled by student protests over the South Asian country's government job quota system.
After weeks of peaceful protests by students seeking to change the system — which reserves 30 percent of government jobs for families of veterans and freedom fighters during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan — on July 15, when activists of a The student wing from Pakistan started to be violent. The ruling party attacked the demonstrators. Security agents tried to quell the violence by using tear gas and rubber bullets.
The quota protests have posed the most serious challenge to Bangladesh's government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January elections that were boycotted by the main opposition groups.
The ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have often accused each other of fomenting chaos and political violence, most recently ahead of elections marred by the crackdown on several opposition figures.
Government officials – including those at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the top office that houses most of the country's ministers and bureaucrats – on Tuesday wore black badges for those killed in the violence.
Bangladesh is slowly returning to normal with curfews being eased in recent days. Authorities also asked all mosques, temples and other religious institutions to hold special prayers for the dead on Tuesday.
Late on Tuesday, Hasina visited a government hospital in the capital Dhaka where many of the injured were being treated. He urged the hospital authorities to ensure the best possible care.
Also on Tuesday, members of 31 cultural groups attempted to hold a march in downtown Dhaka to condemn those killed in the violence, but were prevented by police. No violence was reported as the singers and other activists sat in the street and continued to demonstrate peacefully amid a heavy police cordon.
Interior Minister Asduzaman Khan put the total death toll at 150, while the country's main Bengali-language newspaper Puroosum Allo said 211 people had been killed and thousands more injured since the violence began on July 15. are
Media reports say about 10,000 people have been arrested in the past two weeks in connection with clashes at protests and other attacks on government property. Human rights groups have called for an end to arbitrary arrests, and critics have accused the government of using excessive force to reduce violence.
“The mass arrests and arbitrary detention of protesting students is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government and is a tool to further perpetuate a climate of fear,” said Smriti Singh, South Asia Regional Director at Amnesty International. ” It was announced in a statement on Monday.
“Reports suggest that these arrests are purely politically motivated and in retaliation for human rights abuses,” Singh said.
The government has defended its position and said that the arrests were based on specific charges and the examination of CCTV footage and based on evidence.
Six of the protest coordinators, who are in custody by the Dhaka city police detective branch, issued a statement calling off the protests, but other protesters rejected the video statement, claiming it was forced.
They say they will protest until all their demands are met, including a public apology from Prime Minister Hasina.
Six coordinators were detained for their safety and their families met them on Monday, police said. A video was released showing the six having a meal with the head of the detective branch in Dhaka, Haroon or Rashid.
Human rights activists have demanded the release of these six people so that they can return to their families.
The protesters do not have a single leader, although the movement has a number of coordinators across the country. A news release attributed to one of the coordinators, Abdulhanan Massoud, called for protests on Wednesday at educational institutions, courthouses and major roads. Publication cannot be independently verified.
Also on Tuesday, Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government would ban the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing Islami Chatre Shibir. Hasina and several other ministers have accused the party's cabinet and its student wing of playing a role in the violence in the student protests.
Hoque said the Awami League-led coalition of 14 parties has decided to officially ban Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing on Wednesday. Details of the ban were not immediately clear.
The party was the ruling partner of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party under former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's fierce rival, in 2006-2001. The party had actively campaigned in favor of the Pakistan Army and against the creation of independent Bangladesh in 1971.
Protesters have said that the 30% quota is discriminatory and favors Hasina's supporters, whose Awami League party is leading the independence movement, and has called for its replacement with a merit-based system.
On July 21, the Supreme Court ordered that the 1971 veterans' quota be reduced to 5 percent. Of the rest, 93 percent of civil service jobs will be merit-based, while the remaining 2 percent will be reserved for members of ethnic minorities, transgender people, and people with disabilities. Two days later, the government accepted the ruling and pledged to implement the decision.
The status of veterans of the 1971 war remains an issue in Bangladesh, as the quota was applied to women raped by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators during the war for independence – and their children. These women are known as “freedom fighters” because of the suffering they endured. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father, is the independence leader of Bangladesh.
Both broadband and mobile data services were restored after a day-long internet outage on Tuesday, but social media platforms, including Facebook, remained blocked. Banks and offices opened slowly under the curfew. Schools and other educational institutions were closed, and the reopening date is yet to be determined as police continue to clash with protesters.
