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Dhaka: Soldiers patrolled the empty streets of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Saturday (July 20) as the government ordered all offices and institutions to close for two days after at least 114 people were killed in attacks this week. Student-led protests against government job quotas.
At least four people were killed in sporadic clashes on Saturday in parts of Dhaka, the epicenter of the protests, where security forces set up roadblocks to enforce a curfew, according to hospital data.
Amid tensions in the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government declared Sunday and Monday as “public holidays”, with only emergency services allowed to operate.
Authorities had closed universities and colleges on Wednesday.
Nationwide unrest has been sparked by students angry about government job quotas, 30% of which are reserved for families of those who fought for independence from Pakistan.
Hasina’s government abolished the quota system in 2018, but the court restored it last month. After the government appealed, the Supreme Court stayed the decision and agreed to bring forward the hearing originally scheduled for August 7 to hear the case on Sunday.
The protests, the largest since Hasina was elected for a fourth consecutive term this year, were also sparked by high unemployment among young people, who make up nearly a fifth of the country’s population.
Internet and text messaging services in Bangladesh have been suspended since Thursday as police cracked down on protesters violating a ban on public gatherings, leading to a nationwide blackout.
Overseas calls were mostly unreachable, the websites of Bangladeshi media organizations were not updated and social media accounts were inactive.
“To cut off the internet from a country of nearly 170 million people is a drastic move, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Egyptian revolution in 2011,” said John Heidemann, chief scientist at the USC Viterbi Institute for Information Sciences’ Networking and Cybersecurity division.
Internet outages meant many people were unable to top up their electricity meters, leading to power outages.
According to statistics from hospitals across Bangladesh, the conflict has left thousands of people injured. Between 5pm and 7pm on Friday, Dhaka Medical College Hospital received a total of 27 bodies.
This week, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and threw sonic grenades to disperse protesters who threw bricks and set vehicles on fire.
As the death toll mounted and police and other security forces were unable to control the protests, authorities imposed a nationwide curfew and deployed the army with orders to shoot if necessary.
The curfew was relaxed for two hours from noon on Saturday to allow people to shop and complete other household chores. It will remain in place until 10am on Sunday, when the government will assess the situation.
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