Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh observed a day of mourning on Tuesday for the more than 200 people killed in recent weeks in violence sparked by student protests over the South Asian country's quota system for government jobs.
After weeks of peaceful protests by students seeking to change the system of reserving 30 percent government jobs for veterans and families of freedom fighters in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan — violence erupted on July 15 when activists of a student body. The ruling party attacked the protesters. Security officials fired tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the violence.
The quota movement has posed the most serious challenge to Bangladesh's government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January, boycotted by Bangladesh's main opposition groups.
The ruling Awami League Party and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have accused each other of fomenting political chaos and violence, just before the election, which was worsened by a crackdown on several opposition figures.
Government officials – including those in the Bangladesh Secretariat, the top office that includes most of the country's ministers and bureaucrats – wore black badges on Tuesday to mourn those killed in the violence.
Bangladesh is slowly returning to normal with the easing of strict curfews in recent days. Authorities also asked all mosques, temples and other religious establishments to organize special prayers for the dead on Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday, Hasina reached a government hospital in the capital, Dhaka, where many of the injured were being treated. He urged the hospital administration to ensure the best possible care.
Also on Tuesday, members of 31 cultural groups tried to take out a rally in Dhaka city to condemn the death in the violence but were stopped by the police. No violence was reported as the singer and other activists continued to protest peacefully in the streets under heavy police cordon.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan put the total death toll at 150, while Pratham Alo, the country's leading Bengali-language daily, said 211 people had been killed and thousands injured since violence erupted on July 15.
Media reports say that around 10,000 people have been arrested in connection with clashes and other attacks on state property in the past two weeks. Rights groups have called for an end to arbitrary arrests, and critics have accused the government of using excessive force to quell the violence.
“The mass arrests and arbitrary detention of student protesters to silence anyone who challenges the government is a witch hunt and a tool to perpetuate a climate of fear,” said Smriti Singh, Amnesty International's regional director for South Asia. said in a statement on Monday.
“Reports suggest that these arrests are purely politically motivated, in retaliation for human rights abuses,” Singh said.
The government has defended its stand by saying that the arrest was made on the basis of CCTV footage and evidence.
Six of the protest organizers detained by the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police issued statements calling off the protest, but other protesters denied the video statement was coerced.
They have said that they will protest until all their demands are met, including a public apology from Prime Minister Hasina.
The police said that the six coordinators were taken into protective custody and their families met them on Monday. A video was posted of 6 people having dinner with Harun-ar-Rashid, head of detective branch in Dhaka.
Rights activists have demanded the release of the six so they can return to their families.
Although there is a nationwide coordinator of the movement, the protestors do not have a single leader. A news release attributed to one of the coordinators, Abdul Hannan Masood, called for protests in educational institutions, courts and major roads on Wednesday. The release could not be independently verified.
On Tuesday, Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Haque said the government would ban the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student organization Islami Chhatra Shibir. Hasina and other cabinet ministers have accused the party and its student body of playing a role in the violence during the student agitation.
Huq said the 14-party coalition led by the ruling Awami League had decided on Wednesday to officially ban the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student body. Details of the ban were not immediately clear.
The party was the ruling partner of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 2001-2006 under Hasina's staunch rival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The party actively campaigned in 1971 in favor of the Pakistan Army and against the creation of an independent Bangladesh.
Protesters have called for the 30 percent quota to be discriminatory and benefit supporters of Hasina, the Awami League party that led the independence movement, and to replace it with a merit-based system.
On July 21, the Supreme Court ordered to reduce the quota of 1971 war veterans to 5 percent. The remaining 93 percent will be based on merit in the civil services, while the remaining 2 percent will be reserved for ethnic minorities, transgenders and persons with disabilities. Two days later, the government accepted the decision and promised to implement it.
The status of 1971 war veterans has become a charged issue in Bangladesh as quotas were imposed by Pakistani soldiers and their allies on women and their children who were raped during the war for independence. These women are recognized as “Freedom Fighters” for the ordeal they went through. Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is an independent leader of Bangladesh.
Both broadband and mobile data services were restored on Tuesday after a day-long internet blackout, but social networks including Facebook remained down. Banks and offices are open under easy curfew. Schools and other educational institutions have been closed without setting a reopening date as police continued to clash with protesters.
