72 Killed in Fresh Violence in Bangladesh, Government Impose Nation-wide Indefinite Curfew
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 4: India has asked its citizens and students living in Bangladesh to stay alert after fresh violence broke out in the south Asian country on Sunday killing at least 72 people and injuring scores of others forcing the government to impose an indefinite nation-wide curfew from 6 P.M.
After a relative lull in the last fortnight, violence re-erupted with the agitation that began as a protest against reservation quota for the children of freedom fighters took a political turn with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets demanding resignation of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government.
The police fired tear gas shells and lobbed stun grenades to disperse the protesters as violence often saw three-way clashes between the supporters of Sheikh Hasina and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the police.
The unrest, which spurred the government to shut down internet services, is its biggest test since deadly protests when Hasina won a fourth straight term in January elections boycotted by the main opposition BNP.
“So far, 32 people have been killed in clashes in 13 districts across Bangladesh,” media reports said. Two construction workers were killed on their way to work and 30 injured in the central district of Munsiganj, during a three-way clash of protesters, police and ruling party activists, witnesses said. “They were brought dead to the hospital with bullet wounds,” said Abu Hena Mohammad Jamal, the superintendent of the district hospital. Police said they had not fired any bullets, however, when some improvised explosives were detonated and the area turned into a battleground.
Violence also broke out elsewhere in the country as protesters blocked major highways. At least three people were killed and 50 injured in the north-eastern district of Pabna during a clash between protesters and activists of Hasina’s ruling Awami League, witnesses said.
Two more were killed in violence in the northern district of Bogura, hospital officials said. A group attacked and vandalised the capital’s Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College Hospital as student protesters launched a non-co-operation program to press their demand for the government’s resignation.
In Rangpur, four Awami League supporters were killed and over 100 people injured while two people were killed each in Bogra and Magura, where a Chhatra Dal leader was among the dead, local media reported,
The protesters under the banner of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement chanted slogans calling for Ms Hasina’s resignation and justice for those killed in the recent violence surrounding the quota reform protests, local media reports said. Several vehicles at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) were torched on Sunday by unidentified people. People carrying sticks were seen vandalising cars, ambulances, motorcycles, and buses.
Last month, at least 200 people were killed, thousands injured and about 10,000 arrested in violence touched off by demonstrations led by student groups protesting against quotas for government jobs that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971. The protests paused after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas, but students returned to the streets in sporadic protests last week, demanding justice for the families of those killed.
Critics of Sheikh Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement, a charge it denies. The government shut down high-speed internet services, mobile operators said, while social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp were not available, even via broadband connections.
India has asked its citizens living in Bangladesh to be in touch and remain alert after the outbreak of fresh violence. “All Indian nationals including students living in the jurisdiction of the Assistant High Commission of India, Sylhet are requested to be in touch with this office and are advised to remain alert,” the Assistant High Commission said in a post on X.
The clashes broke out again on Sunday morning when protesters attending a non-cooperation programme to demand the government’s resignation faced opposition from the supporters of the Awami League, Chhatra League, and Jubo League activists.
The Bangladesh Home Ministry decided to impose an indefinite countrywide curfew from 6 pm. Prime Minister Hasina said those engaging in sabotage across Bangladesh in the name of protests were not students but terrorists and asked people to suppress them with a firm hand.
Ms Hasina called a meeting of the National Committee on Security Affairs at Ganabhaban. “I appeal to the countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a firm hand,” she said. The meeting was attended by the chiefs of the army, navy, air force, police and other agencies. The protesters have dismissed Ms Hasina’s invitation for dialogue aimed at quelling escalating violence and consolidated their demands into a unified call for the government’s resignation.
