No entry: Soldiers standing guard near the parliament house amid a curfew in Dhaka. — AFP
More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested in Dhaka over violence that has wracked Bangladesh and killed 163 people since students started protesting against civil service hiring rules, police said.
What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs has snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.
A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide Internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.
“At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence since the unrest began,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain said.
“They include some BNP leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party.
Bangladesh’s top court on Sunday pared back the hiring quotas for specific groups for government jobs, which are seen as secure and sought-after.
But the decision failed to mollify university student leaders, whose demonstrations against the quota scheme have sparked nationwide clashes that have killed 163 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.
Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and leading Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University, described the violence as “the worst massacre by any regime since independence”.
“The atrocities committed in the past days show that the regime is entirely dependent on brute force and has no regard for the lives of the people,” he said.
“These indiscriminate killings cannot be washed by a court ruling or a government announcement.”
Diplomats in Dhaka questioned Bangladeshi authorities’ deadly response to the protests following a presentation by the foreign minister that blamed demonstrators for the violence, officials said.
Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud summoned ambassadors for a briefing on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video that sources said focused on damage caused by protesters.
But a senior diplomatic official in Dhaka, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that US ambassador Peter Haas said Hasan was presenting a one-sided version of events.
“I am surprised you did not show the footage of police firing at unarmed protesters,” the source quoted Haas as telling the minister.
A US embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the ambassador’s comments.
Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi student organisation behind the recent protests said yesterday it was halting demonstrations for 48 hours.
“We are suspending the shutdown protests for 48 hours,” Nahid Islam, the top leader of main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, said from his hospital bed.
“We demand that during this period the government withdraws the curfew, restores the Internet and stops targeting the student protesters.” — AFP
