DHAKA, Bangladesh — New protests erupted in Bangladesh on Friday against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, demanding accountability after more than 200 people were killed last month in violent demonstrations following weeks of rallies over controversial reforms in the job quota system.
Over 2,000 protesters gathered in parts of the capital, Dhaka, some shouting “down with the autocrat” and demanding justice for victims. Police and dozens of students clashed in Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood. Security officers fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters.
In the southwestern district of Khulna, police also fired tear gas and rubber bullets, injuring 50 protesters, the Dhaka-based English-language Daily Star reported. The paper said 50 were also injured in clashes in the northeastern district of Habiganj after an arson attack on a local office of the ruling Awami League party.
In the southeastern city of Chattogram, about 1,000 protesters held a procession after Friday prayers and set a roadside police guard post on fire, the report said.
The student protests against the government, which show no signs of dying down, started as a peaceful demonstration against a quota system allocating government jobs but morphed into an unprecedented challenge and rebellion against Hasina, whose 15-year-long dominance over the country is now being tested like never before.
Hasina, 76, was elected for a fourth consecutive term in January in a vote boycotted by her main opponents, making the result a near certainty even before votes were counted.
Since the violence erupted on July 15, authorities have shut off the internet and enforced a shoot-on-sight curfew. Schools and universities remain closed.
Dramatic videos of deadly clashes between police and protesters have shaken Bangladesh, as has the case of a six-year-old girl who was shot while playing on a rooftop while her father unsuccessfully tried to shield her from the firing.
The wave of discontent started with students, frustrated by shortages of good jobs, demanding an end to a quota system for government jobs that they argued was discriminatory. Under the system, 30% of such jobs were reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. They said it benefited supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and wanted it replaced with a merit-based system.
The Supreme Court scaled back the veterans’ quota to 5% but protests continued, something experts say reflects more widespread anger against the government and economic discontent.
“There have been plenty of protests during the Awami League’s regime over the last 15 years, but nothing as large, long, and violent as this one,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.
This time, there appeared to be a perfect storm, Kugelman added - an unpopular quota system, a ferocious government response that turned deadly, pent-up anger against the state and growing economic stress felt by the majority of citizens. Also, the heavy-handed crackdown, mixing force and some negotiations, has only “inflamed the protests instead of extinguishing them,” Kugelman said.
The furor has also highlighted the extent of economic discontent in Bangladesh, once hailed for its growth success story. Like other countries, it suffered following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which drove up prices of commodities. Exports fell and foreign exchange reserves and remittances are running low. There’s a lack of quality jobs for young graduates, who now increasingly seek the more stable and lucrative government jobs.
The discontent drove many students out on the streets - and the government’s violent response kept them there, even as the quota system was scaled back. Groups of students, teachers and civil society members say they are now fighting for justice for those who have been killed, while Hasina’s political opponents demand her resignation.
Mohammad Rakib Uddin was protesting with hundreds of other students and wearing his college uniform when bullets pierced his hip. The 18-year-old said he survived after his friends rushed him to the hospital.
“They have brutally and inhumanely attacked us … we don’t have weapons, bombs or even a stick in our hands,” he said. “By the grace of the Almighty, I am alive.”
The United Nations and the United States have criticized the authorities’ crackdown. The government says armed opposition supporters infiltrated the students to attack security officials and state-owned establishments.
After weeks, the violence subsided and a semblance of normalcy is slowly returning. The curfew has been relaxed, the internet is back on and banks and offices have reopened.
But the turmoil continues to swirl around Hasina. Her critics say the unrest is a result of her authoritarian streak and hunger for control at all costs. Human rights groups blame her for using security forces and courts to suppress dissent and opposition, which the government denies.
For her part, Hasina is blaming the two main opposition parties - which have backed the students - of fueling the violence. Her government on Thursday banned one of them, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, its student wing and other associate bodies.
Though that may again escalate tensions, Kugelman doesn’t see a threat to Hasina’s political survival though she “faces unprecedented political vulnerability.”
“That could come back to haunt her if there are fresh waves of anti-government protests in the coming weeks or months,” he added.
Nur Sharmin says her family’s lives are at a standstill. Her 16-year-old daughter’s school has closed down and the 35-year-old mother is afraid to step out of her home on most days.
“My daughter needs a safe country to grow up in, it’s her right,” she siad. “We are not asking for much.”
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AP’s video journalist Al Emrun Garjon contributed to this report.
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