Police imposed a strict curfew with a “shoot-on-sight” order across Bangladesh after 133 people were killed in nationwide civil unrest. The deadly clashes between police and university students were sparked by the future of civil service hiring rules, on which the country’s top court is due to rule on Sunday (July 21).
Soldiers patrolled parts of Dhaka on Saturday (July 20) after the protests snowballed into some of the worst in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. Not only students, but other citizens have also joined in demanding the resignation of the government.
The military has now taken over after riot police failed to quell the unrest, which started as being against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs. Bangladesh has also been under an internet blackout since July 18, drastically restricting the flow of information to the outside world.
The reason behind the unrest, the civil service jobs allocation system reserves more than half of the posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan. Critics have time and again pointed out that these quotas benefit those loyal to Hasina, who has ruled the country since 2009.
The 76-year-old leader won her fourth consecutive term in January after a vote without genuine opposition. Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to become more powerful and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
The quota system reserves up to 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in the 1971 war. It is a source of resentment among the youth, who are facing an acute job crisis in a country unable to provide adequate employment opportunities to its population of 170 million. The demonstrations — called for mainly by student groups — started weeks ago.
In 2018, the government halted the quotas following mass student protests. But, in June, Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that decision and reinstated the system after relatives of 1971 veterans filed petitions. The Supreme Court suspended the ruling, pending an appeal hearing.
- The Supreme Court is meeting later in the day to issue a verdict on whether to abolish the contentious job quotas. Hasina, whose government has been accused of bending the judiciary to its will, has hinted that the scheme will be scrapped. But, amid the severe crackdown and rising death toll, a favourable verdict is unlikely to mollify public anger. “It’s not about the rights of the students anymore,” business owner Hasibul Sheikh told AFP. “Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government.”
- Hasina inflamed tensions this month by likening protesters to the Bangladeshis who had collaborated with Pakistan during the country’s independence war. She was due to leave the country on Sunday (July 21) for a diplomatic tour to Spain and Brazil but cancelled her plans.
- The US has recommended that its citizens do not travel to Bangladesh and allowed the voluntary departure of its non-emergency government employees and family members. This comes a day after it issued a new travel advisory, urging Americans to reconsider their travel to the strife-torn country. The US Department of State raised the Travel Advisory Level for Bangladesh to Level 4 — ‘Do Not Travel’.
- Officials said the curfew was to quell further violence after police and protesters clashed in the streets and at university campuses in Dhaka and other cities. It began at midnight on Saturday (July 20) and was relaxed from noon to 2 pm for people to run essential errands. It is expected to end on Sunday. It allows officers to fire on mobs in extreme cases, said lawmaker Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party.
- July 19 was likely to be the deadliest day so far; Somoy TV reported 43 killed, while an Associated Press reporter saw 23 bodies at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, but it was not immediately clear whether they all died on that day. On July 18, 22 others were reported dead as protesting students attempted to “completely shut down” the country. Bangladeshi authorities have not shared any official numbers of those killed and injured.