Bangladeshi student group suspends protests over death toll | World News

The Bangladeshi student group that led the demonstrations that turned deadly suspended their protests for 48 hours on Monday. Their leader said they did not want reforms “at the cost of so much blood.”

What began as demonstrations against politicized admission quotas for coveted government jobs escalated into the worst unrest during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling the cities of the South Asian country. In addition, the flow of information to the outside world has been drastically restricted since Thursday by a nationwide internet blackout.

“We are suspending the shutdown protests for 48 hours,” Nahid Islam, the top leader of the main protest organizer, Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed.

He was being treated for injuries after being beaten by people he accused of being undercover police officers, he said.

“We demand that the government lift the curfew during this time, restore the internet and stop cracking down on the protesting students.”

On Sunday, the Supreme Court reduced the number of jobs reserved for certain groups, including descendants of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s liberation war against Pakistan in 1971.

“We started this movement to reform the quota,” Islam said.

“But we did not want a quota reform that would come at the cost of so much blood, so much killing and so much damage to life and property.”

According to the AFP news agency, at least 163 people were killed in the clashes, including several police officers. The number of victims was determined by the police and hospitals.

Sporadic outbreaks of violence continued on Monday. According to an AFP reporter on the scene, four people were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with gunshot wounds.

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 had been arrested in the capital since the protests began, including some leading figures from the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

Ali Riaz, a political science professor and leading Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University, called the violence “the worst massacre of any regime since independence.”

“The atrocities committed in recent 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 whitewashed by a court ruling or a government statement.”

Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus called on “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything in their power to end the violence.”

“The killings that have already taken place must be investigated,” the 83-year-old said in a statement. It was his first public comment since the unrest began.

The respected economist is credited with lifting millions of people out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank, but in doing so he also incurred the hatred of Hasina, who accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.

“Bangladesh has entered a crisis that seems to be getting worse every day,” said Yunus. “Among the victims are high school students.”

Diplomats in Dhaka questioned the deadly response of Bangladeshi authorities to the protests.

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud summoned ambassadors to a meeting on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video that, according to sources, focused on the damage caused by protesters.

According to a senior diplomat, US Ambassador Peter Haas told Mahmud that he was presenting a one-sided version of events.

“I am surprised that you did not show the footage of the police shooting at unarmed demonstrators,” the source quoted Haas as saying to the minister.

A U.S. embassy official confirmed the ambassador’s comments on condition of anonymity.

The diplomatic source added that Mahmud did not respond to a UN official’s question about the alleged use of UN-marked armoured personnel carriers and helicopters to quell the protests.

Bangladesh is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping missions around the world, generates significant revenue from its efforts and has UN-marked equipment in its military stockpiles.

According to government figures, around 18 million young people are unemployed in Bangladesh. The reintroduction of the quota system is a major disappointment for university graduates, who are facing an acute employment crisis.

The Supreme Court’s decision reduced the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent. Most of these jobs will continue to be reserved for the children and grandchildren of the “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

Although 93 percent of jobs are awarded based on merit, the decision fell short of the protesters’ demands to abolish the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

Critics claim the quota is being used to fill public positions with supporters of Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Opponents accuse her government of subjecting the judiciary to its will.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote with no real opposition.

Human rights groups also accuse the government of abusing state institutions to consolidate its power and suppress dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

bur-sa/slb/dhw

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications.