DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s authorities late Friday introduced a nationwide curfew throughout Bangladesh and ordered the deployment of army forces to take care of order following days of lethal clashes over the allocation of presidency jobs.
The announcement was made by Obaidul Quader, the overall secretary of the ruling Awami League get together, and got here after police and safety officers fired on protesters earlier Friday and banned all gatherings within the capital. Several individuals had been killed, media reviews mentioned.
Quader mentioned the army was deployed to assist the civilian administration preserve order.
The protests, which started weeks in the past however escalated sharply this week, symbolize the largest problem to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since she received a fourth consecutive time period in workplace after elections in January. Main opposition teams boycotted these polls.
There had been various reviews of the variety of individuals killed Friday, with Independent Television reporting 17 lifeless and Somoy TV reporting 30. An Associated Press reporter noticed 23 our bodies at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, however it was not instantly clear whether or not they had all died on Friday.
A dying toll of 22 individuals was reported on Thursday, in what had to date been the bloodiest day of demonstrations, in line with native media, as protesting college students tried to impose a “complete shutdown” of the nation.
Authorities couldn’t be reached instantly to substantiate figures for the deaths.
The chaos has highlighted cracks in Bangladesh’s governance and economic system and the frustration of younger graduates who face an absence of excellent jobs.
The authorities has deployed police and paramilitary forces throughout the capital to lock down campuses and break up protests. On Wednesday, universities together with the nation’s largest suspended courses and closed dormitories, and on Friday police in Dhaka mentioned they had been banning all gatherings and demonstrations within the capital.
An Associated Press reporter noticed border guard officers fireplace at a crowd of greater than 1,000 protesters who had gathered outdoors the top workplace of state-run Bangladesh Television, which was attacked and set on fireplace by protesters yesterday.
The border guards shot on the crowd with rifles and sound grenades, whereas cops fired tear fuel and rubber bullets. Bullets littered the streets, which had been additionally marked by smears of blood.
Internet services and mobile information had been broadly disrupted on Thursday evening and remained down on Friday within the capital, Dhaka. Social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp had been additionally not loading. It coincided with a widespread web outage on Friday that disrupted flights, banks, media shops and corporations around the globe, however the disruptions in Bangladesh had been considerably higher than seen elsewhere.
A press release from the nation’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission mentioned they had been unable to make sure service after their information heart was attacked Thursday by demonstrators, who set fireplace to some tools. The Associated Press was not in a position to independently confirm this.
Student protesters mentioned they’ll prolong their calls to impose a shutdown on Friday as nicely, and urged mosques throughout the nation to carry funeral prayers for many who have been killed. Major universities have mentioned they’ll shut their doorways till tensions ease.
The protesters are demanding an finish to a quota system that reserves as much as 30% of presidency jobs for kinfolk of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s conflict of independence in 1971 towards Pakistan.
They argue the system is discriminatory and advantages supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose Awami League get together led the independence motion, and they need it changed with a merit-based system.
But Hasina has defended the quota system, saying that veterans deserve the best respect for his or her contributions to the conflict no matter their political affiliation.
The Bangladeshi chief is credited for bringing steady development to Bangladesh, however rising inflation — thanks partially to the worldwide upheaval sparked by the conflict in Ukraine — has triggered labor unrest and dissatisfaction with the federal government.
Even although job alternatives have grown in some components of the non-public sector, many individuals want authorities jobs as a result of they’re seen as extra steady and profitable. But there aren’t sufficient to go round — annually, some 400,000 graduates compete for round 3,000 jobs within the civil service examination.
“What is unfolding in Bangladesh is deeply unsettling for a generation that only asked for a fair opportunity in public service recruitment,” mentioned Saad Hammadi, a freedom of speech advocate with the Canada-based Balsillie School of International Affairs. “That a peaceful protest against a state policy would slip into the peak of lawlessness shows the government’s lack of farsightedness and inefficient policy governance,” Hammadi mentioned.
“The internet shutdown makes matters worse. Local news sites are inaccessible, and people in the country are left incommunicado with the rest of the world all in the pretext of conducting sweeping operations by the state that have often resulted in serious human rights violations,” he added in an e-mail.
Bangladesh has beforehand shut down web services in areas affected by protests, utilizing it as a measure to suppress dissent by opposition events. Internet watchdog Access Now mentioned it recorded three shutdowns within the nation in 2023 – all of which overlapped with opposition rallies and had been restricted in scope to 1 metropolis or district. That got here after six shutdowns in 2022.
CIVICUS, a nonprofit that tracks civic freedoms around the globe, final yr downgraded Bangladesh to “closed,” the worst ranking that it may assign, together with China and Venezuela, following a crackdown on the nation’s opposition members and supporters forward of its nationwide election.
The foremost opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has backed the protesting college students and vowed to prepare its personal demonstrations, and a lot of their supporters have joined within the college students’ demonstrations. On Friday, police fired tear fuel at a couple of hundred BNP supporters, and arrested senior BNP chief Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
The Awami League and the BNP have usually accused one another of fueling political chaos and violence, most lately forward of the nation’s nationwide election, which was marred by a crackdown on a number of opposition figures whereas Hasina’s authorities accused the get together of trying to disrupt the vote.
Hasina’s authorities had earlier halted the job quotas following mass pupil protests in 2018, however final month, Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that call and reinstated the quotas after kinfolk of the 1971 veterans filed petitions, triggering the most recent demonstrations.
The Supreme Court has suspended that ruling pending an enchantment listening to, and mentioned in a press release it’s going to take up the difficulty on Sunday.
On Wednesday, Hasina urged protesters in a televised deal with to “wait with patience” for the courtroom verdict, saying that she believes they “will get justice” and “will not be disappointed.”
___
Pathi reported from New Delhi, India.
