Bangladesh protests resume after govt ignores ultimatum

DHAKA: Bangladeshi students held scattered street protests on Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ignored an ultimatum to release their leaders and apologise for those killed in deadly unrest.

Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that killed at least 205 people including several police officers, according to a count of police and hospital data.

The clashes were some of the worst of Hasina’s 15-year tenure but her government has since largely restored order by deploying troops, imposing a curfew and shutting down the internet nationwide.

At least half a dozen leaders of Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, are among thousands since taken into police custody. “The government is continuing to show complete and utter insensitivity to our movement,” Abdul Kader, one of the group’s coordinators, said in a statement.

“We are requesting all citizens of Bangladesh to show solidarity with our demands and join in our movement.” Several protests were staged in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh on Monday, but they were only a fraction of the size of those seen earlier in the month.

Police charged with batons to break up one protest on Dhaka’s outskirts, arresting at least 20 people, newspaper Prothom Alo reported. Security forces were deployed widely elsewhere in the teeming megacity of 20 million to deter other demonstrations.

Students Against Discrimination leaders had vowed to end a week-long moratorium on new demonstrations if police failed to release their leaders by Sunday evening.

The group’s demands also include a public apology from Hasina for the violence, the dismissal of several of her ministers, and the reopening of schools and universities around the country that were shuttered at the height of the unrest.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2024