DHAKA: A Bangladeshi student group leading demonstrations that have turned deadly have suspended protests for 48 hours on Monday, with their leader saying they did not want reforms “at the cost of so much blood”.
What began as a demonstration against politicized entry quotas for coveted government jobs has turned into some of the worst riots of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.
Curfews have been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide internet blackout has drastically reduced the flow of information to the outside world since Thursday.
“We are suspending protest actions for 48 hours,” Nahid Islam, a top leader of the main protest organizer Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed.
He was being treated for his injuries after being beaten by people he accused of being undercover police, he said.
“We demand that during this period the government lifts the curfew, restores the internet and stops targeting student protesters.”
The Supreme Court on Sunday limited the number of reserved jobs for specific groups, including descendants of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
“We started this quota reform movement,” Islam said.
“But we didn't want quota reform at the expense of so much blood, so much killing, so much damage to life and property.”
At least 163 people, including several policemen, died in the clashes, according to an AFP death toll reported by police and hospitals.
Sporadic violence continued on Monday, with four people brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with gunshot wounds, as seen by an AFP reporter at the scene.
Government officials have repeatedly blamed protesters and the opposition for the unrest.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP that “at least 532” people, including some leaders of the opposition Bangladesh National Party, had been arrested in the capital since the protests began.
Ali Riaz, a politics professor and leading expert on Bangladesh at Illinois State University, described the violence as “the worst massacre by any regime since independence”.
“The atrocities committed in the past few days show that the regime is completely dependent on brute force and has no regard for people's lives,” he told AFP.
“These indiscriminate killings cannot be washed away by a court decision or a government statement.”
Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus called on “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything in their power to end the violence.”
“There must be an investigation into the murders that have already taken place,” the 83-year-old said in a statement, his first public comments since the unrest began.
The respected economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank, but earned the enmity of Hasina, who accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.
“Bangladesh is gripped by a crisis that is getting worse every day,” Yunus said. “Among the victims are high school students.”
Diplomats in Dhaka questioned Bangladeshi authorities' deadly response to the protests.
Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud called the ambassadors to a briefing on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video, which sources said focused on the damage caused by the protesters.
US Ambassador Peter Haas told Mahmud that he was presenting a one-sided version of events, according to a senior diplomatic official.
“I'm surprised you didn't show footage of police shooting unarmed protesters,” the source quoted Haas as telling the minister.
A representative of the US embassy, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ambassador's statement.
The diplomatic source added that Mahmud did not respond to a UN representative's question about the alleged use of UN-marked armored personnel carriers and helicopters to quell the protests.
Bangladesh is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world – earning significant revenue from its efforts – and has UN-marked equipment in its military inventories.
With around 18 million young people out of work in Bangladesh, according to government figures, the reintroduction of the quota system has deeply upset graduates who are facing an acute jobs crisis.
The Supreme Court ruling reduced the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all posts to seven percent, most of which will still be reserved for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.
While 93 percent of the jobs will be awarded on the basis of merit, the decision fell short of protesters' demands for complete abolition of the “freedom fighter” category.
Critics say the quota is being used to hoard public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's ruling Awami League.
Opponents of her government accuse her of bending the judiciary to her will.
Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth straight election in January after being voted out without real opposition.
Her government is also accused by human rights groups of abusing state institutions to consolidate power and suppress dissent, including extrajudicial killings of opposition activists.
