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Widespread violence gripped Bangladesh after relentless clashes between student protesters, security officials, and pro-government student activists over a quota system for government jobs. At least 39 people died in the violence, with Thursday becoming the most violent day.
Police and protesters armed with sticks and rocks clashed across the country, including in the capital, Dhaka, as the students tried to shut down transportation across Bangladesh.
Hundreds of people were injured as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up groups of protesters, who torched vehicles, police posts and other establishments.
Streets looked deserted in Bangladesh's Dhaka on Friday following the violent protests on Thursday. Bangladesh TV news channels are not transmitting on Friday, news agency Reuters reported.
Communication services were widely disrupted in Bangladesh on Friday, with authorities cutting some mobile services on Thursday to try to quell the unrest but the disruption spread across the country. According to outage monitor NetBlocks, Bangladesh was plunged into a "near-total" internet shutdown as night fell. Telephone calls from overseas were mostly not getting connected and calls through the internet could not be completed.
On Thursday, the student protestors set fire to the state broadcaster’s building a day after the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, appeared on the network seeking to calm the clashes. Several police posts, vehicles and other establishments were also torched. Multiple Awami League officers were also attacked by the students.
The protesters are demanding that the Sheikh Hasina government stop setting aside 30 per cent of government jobs for the families of people who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The agitation, fueled by high unemployment, is the biggest since Prime Minister Hasina was reelected earlier this year.
The protests began late last month. However, it escalated on Monday when student activists at Dhaka University clashed with police and counter-protesters backed by the ruling Awami League.
The protesters argue that the quota system is framed to benefit the supporters of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League, which led the independence movement. They call it a discriminatory system and want to replace it with a merit-based system. Though the Bangladesh government scrapped these quotas in 2018, a High Court reinstated them later.
The Bangladesh Supreme Court, on August 7, is set to hear the government’s appeal against the High Court’s order reinstating the quota, which was abolished by the government in 2018.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, meanwhile, appealed for peace and assured the students that they will not be disappointed by the Supreme Court's decision. During her address to the nation, she also declared that judicial inquiries would be conducted and the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
The ruling Awami League alleged that the protest turned violent after Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, and another organisation, Chhatra Dal, infiltrated it. The League said in a statement that security forces were deployed to maintain law and order.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for restraint by all sides and urged the authorities to investigate all acts of violence and hold the perpetrators to account. "The secretary-general encourages the meaningful and constructive participation of youth to address the ongoing challenges in Bangladesh. Violence can never be the solution," said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
