Protests in Bangladesh: Bangladesh suspends mobile internet, police fire tear gas at protesters

Police in Bangladesh on Thursday fired tear gas to disperse protesters while authorities cut some mobile internet services as violent clashes that have killed six people and injured hundreds this week showed no sign of abating. In the capital Dhaka, shops and offices were open but fewer buses were on the streets as calls for a nationwide shutdown by students demanding the abolition of the 30% reservation quota fell on deaf ears.

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Police used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing students who blocked a major thoroughfare in the southern port city of Chittagong, and mobile phone service was disrupted in most parts of the South Asian country.

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“Mobile internet has been temporarily suspended due to various rumours and the unstable situation that has arisen on social media,” Zunaid Ahmed Palak, deputy minister for information technology, told reporters.

Services will be restored once the situation returns to normal, he added.

The protests represent the first significant challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government since she won her fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Angry at high youth unemployment – out of a population of 170 million, nearly 32 million are neither employed nor in school – the students are pushing for the abolition of the quota of 30% reservations for the families of freedom fighters.

Sporadic clashes were reported in several places as protesters blocked major highways. Eyewitnesses said there were open clashes between riot police and protesters in several places in Dhaka.

The authorities had closed all public and private universities indefinitely as of Wednesday and sent riot police and paramilitary border guard forces to the university campuses to maintain order.

In a speech on Wednesday, Hasina promised that her government would set up a judicial panel to investigate the deaths after police tried to disperse protesters with gunfire and tear gas.

On August 7, the Supreme Court will hear the government’s appeal against a high court verdict ordering the restoration of 30 percent reservation for the families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan, she added.

Hasina asked the students to be patient until the verdict.

The violence was triggered by nationwide clashes between thousands of demonstrators and members of the student wing of Hasina’s ruling Awami League party. At least three students were among the six people killed on Tuesday, police said.

The demonstrations intensified after Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence, rejected the protesters’ demands.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, as well as the United Nations and the United States, called on Bangladesh to protect peaceful protesters from violence.

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