DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh observed a day of mourning on Tuesday in memory of more than 200 people killed in recent weeks during violence that grew out of student protests against the South Asian country's quota system for government jobs.
After weeks of peaceful protests by students who want to change the system — which reserves 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans and freedom fighters during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan — violence erupted on July 15 when activists of a wing students of the ruling party attacked the demonstrators. Security officials opened fire, using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to quell the violence.
The quota protests have been the most serious challenge to Bangladesh's government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January elections, which the main opposition groups boycotted.
The ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party have often accused each other of fueling political chaos and violence, most recently ahead of elections that have been marred by a crackdown on several opposition figures.
Government officials – including those at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the top office that contains 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 normalcy, with the strict restriction being relaxed in recent days. Authorities have also asked all mosques, temples and other religious facilities to hold special prayers for the dead.
Later on Tuesday, Hasina visited a state hospital in the capital Dhaka where many of the injured were being treated. She asked the hospital authorities to ensure the best possible care.
Also on Tuesday, members of 31 cultural groups tried to hold a procession in central Dhaka, condemning the deaths caused by the violence, but police blocked it. There were no reports of violence as the singers and other activists took to the streets and continued to protest peacefully amid a tight police cordon.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan put the total death toll at 150, while the country's leading Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo said 211 people had been killed since the violence erupted on July 15, while thousands more were injured.
Media reports say about 10,000 people have been arrested in the past two weeks in connection with clashes at protests and other attacks on state property. Human 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 arrest and arbitrary detention of protesting students is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government and is a tool to further perpetuate a climate of fear,” Smriti Singh, Regional Director for Asia from the South to Amnesty International. , said in a statement on Monday.
“Reports suggest that these arrests are entirely politically motivated in retaliation for the exercise of human rights,” Singh said.
The government defended its position, saying the arrests were made on specific charges and reviewed CCTV footage and evidence.
Six of the protest coordinators held in custody by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Detective Branch released a statement calling off the protests, but other demonstrators rejected the video statement, claiming it was forced.
They say they will protest until all their demands are met, including a public apology from Hasina, the prime minister.
Police said the six coordinators were taken into custody for their safety and their families met them on Monday. A video has been posted showing the six having a meal with Dhaka Detective Branch Chief Harun-or-Rashid.
Human rights activists have called for the six to be released so they can return to their families.
The protesters do not have a single leader, although the movement has a number of coordinators across the country. A press release attributed to a coordinator, Abdul Hannan Masooud, called for protests at educational institutions, courts and main roads on Wednesday. The release could not be independently verified.
Also on Tuesday, Bangladesh Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government would ban the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir. Hasina and several other Cabinet ministers have accused the party and its student wing of playing a role in the violence during the student protests.
Huq said the 14-party alliance led by the Awami League decided to officially ban the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing on Wednesday. Details of the ban were not immediately clear.
The party was the ruling partner of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party under former prime minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's main rival, from 2001 to 2006. The party actively campaigned in favor of the Pakistan Army and against the creation of independent Bangladesh in 1971.
Protesters said the 30 percent quota was discriminatory and benefited supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and called for it to be replaced with a merit-based system.
On July 21, the Supreme Court ordered that the 1971 war veterans quota be reduced to 5%. Of the remainder, 93% of civil service jobs would be merit-based, while the remaining 2% would be reserved for members of ethnic minorities, transgender people and the disabled. Two days later, the government accepted the ruling and pledged to implement the decision.
The status of veterans of the 1971 war remains a fraught issue in Bangladesh, as the quota also applied to women raped by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators during the war for independence – and their children. These women were recognized as “freedom fighters” for the ordeal they endured. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father, is the independent leader of Bangladesh.
Both broadband and mobile data services were restored on Tuesday after a days-long internet outage, but social media platforms, including Facebook, remained blocked. Banks and offices opened under a relaxed curfew. Schools and other educational institutions were closed with no set reopening date as police continued to battle protesters.
