More than 2,500 protesters arrested in Bangladesh clashes

Photo: Abu Sufian Jewel Agence France-Presse A police vehicle transported protesters to the courthouse on Wednesday after arresting them in Dhaka.

Shafiqul Alam – Agence France-Presse to Dhaka

Posted at 3:29 p.m. Updated at 7:03 p.m.

• Asia

Bangladesh authorities have arrested more than 2,500 people in recent days during protests against civil service recruitment quotas that have turned violent, according to a new AFP tally on Tuesday.

At least 174 people, including several police officers, have died in the unrest, according to another AFP tally based on casualties reported by police and hospitals.

Student protests against civil service recruitment quotas, which favor groups seen as close to the ruling Awami League party, have sparked the worst wave of violence since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power 15 years ago.

Authorities initially imposed a curfew, deployed soldiers across the South Asian country and cut off the Internet nationwide for five days, which radically reduced the exchange of information and disrupted the daily lives of many people.

The Internet was gradually restored on Tuesday evening, as the Minister of Telecommunications, Junaid Ahmed Palak, had promised shortly before, but the mobile network, widely used by the demonstrators, remained cut.

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In addition, the authorities announced a reduction in the curfew, to allow residents to stock up on basic necessities, and the reopening of banks.

Protests suspended

The student movement behind the protests extended the suspension of protests by 48 hours on Tuesday.

During the next 48 hours, “we will not organize any demonstrations, but we demand that the government restore the Internet, lift the curfew, reopen campuses and protect protesting students”, including “the return” of four of its leaders missing, declared to AFP Nahid Islam, the leader of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organizing the demonstrations.

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From his hospital room, he had reported Monday fearing for his life after being kidnapped and beaten.

A heavy military presence was visible Tuesday in the country's capital, Dhaka, with roadblocks at certain intersections and on main roads. But the inhabitants were more numerous in the streets, traversed by hundreds of rickshaws.

« I did not drive a rickshaw during the first days of the cover -fire, but today I had no choice,” Hanif, a driver of these popular vehicles, told AFP. “If I don’t, my family will go hungry. »

“Killed at random”

More than 1,200 people were arrested in Dhaka and its rural outskirts, police officials told AFP.

Photo: K M Asas Agence France-Presse A man looks at vehicles burned by students during anti-quota protests in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Nearly 600 people were arrested in and around the port city of Chittagong, with hundreds more arrested in several districts across the country, according to local police officials. These latest figures bring the total arrests recorded by the AFP to 2,580. The authorities' response to the protests has been widely criticized.

In a statement on Monday, the Bangladeshi laureate Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus urged “international leaders and the United Nations to do everything in their power to end the violence.”

Muhammad Yunus, 83, is known for lifting millions of people out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank.

“Every day, young people are killed randomly,” Yunus told AFP.

Diplomats stationed in the capital have also criticized the government's repression, which has repeatedly placed the responsibility for the unrest on the demonstrators and the opposition, according to diplomatic sources on condition of anonymity.

Fewer quota jobs

With around 18 million young people unemployed, according to official figures, the reintroduction of the quota system in the civil service in June triggered anger among graduates.

The Supreme Court on Sunday reduced the rate of reserved employment from 56% to 7 % of all posts, mainly for the children and grandchildren of the fighters of the 1971 war of liberation against Pakistan, but has not abolished this system, as the demonstrators are demanding.

The decision does not address protesters' demands to completely remove the category of “freedom fighters.”

Prime Minister Hasina's spokesperson told AFP on Monday evening that she had approved a government order implementing the Supreme Court ruling.

Sheikh Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January in a vote without any real opposition.

The violence of recent days has raised questions about her future, but she told businessmen on Monday of her determination to stay in power, saying: “Sheikh Hasina never runs away. »