DHAKA, Bangladesh: Bangladesh observed a day of mourning on Tuesday to commemorate more than 200 people killed in recent weeks during violence that grew out of student protests over the South Asian country's quota system for government jobs.
After weeks of peaceful student protests seeking to change the system — which reserves 30 percent of government jobs to families of veterans and freedom fighters during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan — violence erupted on July 15 when activists from the ruling party's student wing attacked protesters. Security officials opened fire, using tear gas and rubber bullets to try to quell the violence.
The anti-quota protests have been the most serious challenge to Bangladesh's government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth straight term in January elections that were boycotted by the main opposition groups.
The ruling Awami League and the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party often accuse each other of fomenting political chaos and violence, most recently ahead of an election marked by a crackdown on several opposition figures.
Government officials – including those at the Bangladesh Secretariat, the highest office that houses 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 normal and a strict curfew has been relaxed in recent days. Authorities have also asked all mosques, temples and other religious institutions to organize special prayers for the dead on Tuesday.
Later on Tuesday, Hasina visited a government hospital in the capital, Dhaka, where many injured were being treated. She asked the hospital management to ensure the best possible care.
Also on Tuesday, members of 31 cultural groups tried to hold a march in central Dhaka to condemn the deaths in the violence, but were blocked by police. No violence was reported as the singers and other activists sat down in the street and peacefully continued to protest 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 and thousands more injured since the violence erupted on July 15.
According to media reports, about 10,000 people have been arrested over the past two weeks in connection with 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 arrests and arbitrary detention of student protesters 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 South Asia at Amnesty International. , he said in a statement on Monday.
“Reports suggest that these arrests are entirely politically motivated in retaliation for human rights violations,” Singh said.
The government defended its position, saying the arrests were made on specific allegations and were reviewing CCTV footage and evidence.
Six of the protest coordinators detained by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police's detective department issued a statement calling off the protests, but other protesters rejected the video, saying 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 was released showing the six having a meal with the head of Dhaka's detective department, Harun-or-Rashid.
Human rights defenders demanded the release of the six so they could 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 one coordinator, Abdul Hannan Masoud, called for protests on Wednesday in educational institutions, courts and on major roads. 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 ruling alliance of 14 parties led by the Awami League decided that the Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student wing should be officially banned on Wednesday. Details of the ban were not immediately clear.
The party was the ruling partner of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party from 2001-2006 under former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Hasina's main rival. The party actively campaigned in favor of the Pakistan Army and against the creation of an 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 urged 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 percent. Of the rest, 93 percent of civil service jobs would be merit-based, while the remaining 2 percent would be reserved for ethnic minorities, transgender people and people with disabilities. Two days later, the government accepted the decision and pledged to implement the decision.
The status of 1971 war veterans remains a fraught issue in Bangladesh, as the quota also applied to women raped by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators during the war of independence – and their children. These women were recognized as “freedom fighters” for the suffering they went through. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father, is the independence leader of Bangladesh.
Broadband and mobile data services were restored on Tuesday after a day-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 the protesters.
