DHAKA: The Bangladeshi student group leading demonstrations that have spiralled into deadly violence suspended protests on Monday (Jul 22) for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.
Streets appeared calm in Bangladesh’s capital on Monday, a day after the country’s supreme court agreed to scrap most government job quotas that had angered student-led activists and led to deadly protests.
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 on Monday.
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.
“We are suspending the shutdown protests for 48 hours,” Nahid Islam, the top leader of the main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed.
He was being treated for his injuries after being beaten by people he accused of being undercover police, he said.
“We demand that during this period the government withdraws the curfew, restores the internet and stops targeting the student protesters.”
“At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence” since the unrest began, Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.
“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.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/more-500-arrested-bangladesh-capital-deadly-unrest-job-quota-4496106
