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Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and clashed with pro-government supporters on Sunday, with massive rallies and violence breaking out across the country, leaving eight people dead.
Police said large numbers of protesters, many armed with sticks, swarmed into Shahbagh Square in central Dhaka and street fights broke out at multiple locations as well as in other major cities.
“There were clashes between students and members of the ruling party,” police officer Al Helal told AFP, adding that two young men were killed in Dhaka’s Munshiganj district.
“One of the deceased had a slash wound to the head and another had a gunshot wound.”
Another police officer, who declined to be named, said “the whole city has turned into a battlefield,” adding that thousands of protesters burned cars and motorcycles outside a hospital.
Police and doctors reported six more deaths in the northern districts of Pabna and Rangpur and in Magura in the west.
-‘Prepare bamboo sticks’-
Asif Mahmud, one of the main protest leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience movement, had previously asked supporters to be prepared as last month’s rally was suppressed by the police.
“Get bamboo poles ready, liberate Bangladesh,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
While the army stepped in to help restore order after earlier protests, some former officers later joined the student movement, with former army chief General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan changing his Facebook profile picture to red in a show of support.
Addressing officers at the military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday, the incumbent army chief Waqar Uzi Zaman told them that “Bangladesh Army is a symbol of people’s trust”.
“The military always stands on the side of the people and will do so for the benefit of the people and whatever the country needs,” the military said in a statement released late Saturday.
The statement did not provide further details or make clear whether the military supported the protests.
In July, rallies against quotas for civil service jobs sparked days of chaos that left more than 200 people dead, some of the worst unrest during Hasina’s 15-year term.
The army briefly restored order, but this week large numbers of people returned to the streets in a sweeping non-cooperation campaign aimed at paralyzing the government.
As hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Dhaka on Saturday, police mostly watched.
-“free life”-
The protests have grown into a broader anti-government movement across the South Asian country of about 170 million people.
The mass movement has involved all sectors of Bangladeshi society, including film stars, musicians and singers, with rap songs calling for public support being widely circulated on social media.
“This is not just about job quotas anymore,” said a young female protester, who gave her name only as Sakhawat, as she graffitied a wall at a protest site in Dhaka, calling Hasina a “killer.”
“What we want is for our next generation to be able to live freely in this country.”
The garment industry is vital to the economy and 47 manufacturers in the sector said on Sunday they “stand in solidarity” with the protesters.
“We cannot remain silent and watch the tragic loss of innocent lives and the people’s demands being ignored,” the joint statement read.
Obaidul Kader, secretary general of Hasina’s ruling Awami League, called on party activists to gather in “every district” across the country to express support for the government.
– ‘Be prepared for anything’ –
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising the initial demonstrations, had previously insisted the rally would be “peaceful”.
But it also warned that “if anyone attacks us, we urge (everyone) to be prepared for anything.”
Protests broke out at Dhaka’s entry point, blocking traffic routes.
The Anti-Discrimination Student Organization called on fellow students to stop paying taxes and utility bills and demanded that government workers and laborers go on strike.
Hasina, 76, has been Bangladesh’s president since 2009 and won a fourth straight election in January in a vote with no real opposition.
Rights groups accuse her government of abusing state institutions to consolidate its power and suppress dissent, including through extrajudicial killings of opposition activists.
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has scaled back a quota system that had been in place since early July, following protests against the reintroduction of a quota system that reserved more than half of government jobs for certain groups.
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