Police used tear gas to disperse student protestors in Bogura, Bangladesh, on 4 August 2024. (AFP)
- The overall death toll from clashes in Bangladesh has risen to at least 300 people.
- This follows the deaths of 94 people on Sunday deadliest day in weeks of anti-government demonstrations.
- Protests are set to resume on Monday, with heavy deployments of soldiers and police in the capital Dhaka patrolling key roads and barricading routes to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The overall death toll from clashes in Bangladesh has risen to at least 300 people, after 94 died Sunday in the deadliest day in weeks of anti-government demonstrations, according to an AFP tally.
The tally is based on reports from police, officials and doctors at hospitals. Protests are set to resume on Monday, with heavy deployments of soldiers and police in the capital Dhaka patrolling key roads and barricading routes to the office of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Analysts fear violence could surpass that seen on Sunday, when hundreds of thousands of protesters and government supporters countrywide battled each other with sticks and knives, and security forces opened fire with rifles.Rallies that began last month against civil service job quotas have escalated into some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year rule and shifted into wider calls for the 76-year-old to quit.
READ | At least 91 killed as clashes rock Bangladesh, curfew imposed
“We are calling on students and (the) public all over the country to march towards Dhaka,” said Asif Mahmud, one of the key leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign.”The time has come for the final protest,” he added.
Shocking violence
While police ordered a curfew after dark on Sunday and mobile internet was tightly restricted countrywide, AFP journalists in Dhaka reported hearing sustained crackles of gunfire as protesters defied calls to go home.
Ali Riaz, an Illinois State University politics professor and expert on Bangladesh, warned that Hasina was “digging her heels” in, adding he was “deeply concerned” at the crisis.
“This is an unprecedented popular uprising by all measures,” Riaz said. “Also, the ferocity of the state actors and regime loyalists is unmatched in history.”
Raw anger
In several cases, soldiers and police did not intervene to stem the protests, unlike during the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns.
Demonstrators in Dhaka, surrounded by a tightly packed and cheering crowd, waved a Bangladeshi flag on top of an armoured car as soldiers watched, according to videos on social media Sunday verified by AFP.
“Let’s be clear: The walls are closing in on Hasina: She’s rapidly losing support and legitimacy,” Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, told AFP.
“The protests have taken on immense momentum, fuelled by raw anger but also by the confidence that comes with knowing that so much of the nation is behind them.”
In a hugely symbolic rebuke of Hasina, a respected former army chief demanded the government “immediately” withdraw troops and allow protests.
“Those who are responsible for pushing people of this country to a state of such an extreme misery will have to be brought to justice,” ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan told reporters Sunday, in a joint statement alongside other senior former officers.
By the people
Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman told officers on Saturday that the military “always stood by the people”, according to an official statement, which gave no further details and did not say explicitly whether the army backed the protests.
The anti-government movement has attracted people across society in the South Asian nation of about 170 million people, including film stars, musicians and singers.
Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
The protests have continued despite the scheme having been scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court.
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