DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh on Tuesday observed a day of mourning in memory of the more than 200 people killed in recent weeks during violence sparked by student protests against the South Asian country's quota system for government jobs.
After weeks of peaceful protests by students seeking to change the system that reserves 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans and freedom fighters during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan, violence erupted on July 15 when activists from a student wing of the ruling party attacked protesters. Security officials opened fire, using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to quell the violence.
The anti-quota protests have posed the most serious challenge to Bangladesh’s government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January’s elections, which were boycotted by major opposition groups.
The ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have often accused each other of fueling political chaos and violence, most recently in the run-up to elections, which have been marred by a crackdown on several opposition figures.
Government officials, including those at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the highest office in office that houses most of the country's ministers and bureaucrats, wore black badges on Tuesday to commemorate the victims of the violence.
Bangladesh is slowly returning to normalcy with a strict curfew eased in recent days. Authorities have also asked all mosques, temples and other religious installations to hold special prayers for the deceased on Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday, Hasina visited a state-run hospital in the capital Dhaka, where many of the injured were being treated. She asked hospital authorities to provide the best possible care.
Also on Tuesday, members of 31 cultural groups tried to stage a procession in central Dhaka, condemning the deaths in the violence, but police blocked it. No violence was reported as singers and other activists sat on the street and continued protesting peacefully amid a tight police cordon.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan put the overall death toll at 150, while the country's main Bengali-language daily, Prothom Alo, said 211 people had been killed since the violence broke out on July 15, while thousands more had been injured.
Media reported that around 10,000 people have been arrested in the past two weeks in connection with clashes during protests and other attacks on state property. Human rights groups have called for an end to arbitrary arrests, and critics have accused the government of using excessive force to quell the violence.
“The mass arrest and arbitrary detention of student protesters 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,” Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Regional Director, said in a statement on Monday.
“Reports suggest that these arrests are entirely politically motivated, in retaliation for the exercise of human rights,” Singh said.
The government has defended its position, saying that the arrests were made on the basis of specific charges and evidence obtained by examining surveillance footage.
Six of the protest coordinators detained by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's investigation branch issued a statement calling off the protests, but other protesters rejected the video statement, saying it was forced.
They said they will protest until all their demands are met, including a public apology from Prime Minister Hasina.
Police said the six coordinators were taken into custody for their safety and their families met them on Monday. A video was released showing the six having a meal with Dhaka Detective Branch chief Harun-or-Rashid.
Human rights activists have called for the release of the six so they can return to their families.
The protesters have no single leader, although the movement has several coordinators across the country. A press release attributed to one coordinator, Abdul Hannan Masooud, called for protests Wednesday at schools, courthouses and main roads. The statement could not 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 Chhatra Shibir. Hasina and several other cabinet ministers have accused the party and its student wing of playing a role in violence during the student protests.
Huq said the 14-party alliance led by the ruling Awami League had decided that the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing should be officially banned on Wednesday. Details of the ban were not immediately clear.
The party was a governing partner of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party under former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's arch-rival, in 2001-2006. The party had actively campaigned in favor of the Pakistan Army and against the creation of independent Bangladesh in 1971.
Protesters said the 30 percent quota was discriminatory and favored supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and demanded it be replaced by a merit-based system.
On July 21, the Supreme Court ordered that the quota for 1971 war veterans be reduced to 5 percent. In addition, 93 percent of civil service jobs would be based on merit, while the remaining 2 percent would 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 a sensitive issue in Bangladesh, as the quota was also applied to women raped by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators during the war for independence, and to their children. These women have been recognized as “freedom fighters” for the ordeal they have endured. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father, is Bangladesh's independence leader.
Both broadband and mobile data services were restored Tuesday after a days-long internet blackout, but social media platforms including Facebook remained blocked. Banks and offices reopened under relaxed curfews. Schools and other educational institutions remained closed with no reopening date yet set, as police continued to battle protesters.
