BANGLADESH PROTESTS

Dhaka, Bangladesh - August 6, 2024

Text by Shafiqul Alam

Photo by Munir Uz Zaman, Parvez Ahmad Rony, Abu Sufian Jewel, K M Asad, Noah Seelam

Video by Mohammad Mazed

Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule as Bangladesh's prime minister ended Monday as she fled more than a month of deadly protests and the military announced it would form an interim government.

Hasina had sought to quell nationwide protests against her government since early July but she fled the country after brutal unrest on Sunday in which nearly 100 people were killed.

"We want a corruption-free Bangladesh, where everyone would have the right to express their opinion," said Monirul Islam, a 27-year-old man among hundreds of thousands celebrating in the streets in the capital Dhaka.

Bangladesh's army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said in a broadcast to the nation on state television that Hasina had resigned and the military would form a caretaker government.

"The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed -- it is time to stop the violence," said Waker, shortly after jubilant crowds stormed and looted Hasina's official residence.

At least 66 people were killed Monday, police said, saying gangs had launched revenge attacks on Hasina's allies. Many were shot.

Millions of Bangladeshis took to the streets across the South Asian country.

Jubilant crowds waved flags, some dancing on top of a tank, before thousands broke through the gates of Hasina's residence. Others later stormed parliament.

Bangladesh's Channel 24 broadcast images of crowds running into the prime minister's compound, grinning and waving to the camera, looting furniture and books, or relaxing on beds.

Mobs also raided and ransacked the homes of Hasina's Awami League party allies as well as police stations, witnesses told AFP.

"The homes and businesses of pro-Awami League people have been attacked," a senior police officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity, and calling the violence "mob rule".

Others torched television stations that had backed Hasina's rule, smashed statues of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's independence hero, and set fire to a museum dedicated to him.

"The time has come to make them accountable for torture," said protester Kaza Ahmed. "Sheikh Hasina is responsible for murder."

Waker said protests should end and vowed that "all the injustices will be addressed", while the military said it would lift a curfew on Tuesday morning, with businesses and schools to reopen.

Late Monday, Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin ordered the release of prisoners from the protests, as well as former prime minister and key opposition leader Khaleda Zia, 78.

Zia, who is in poor health, was jailed by her arch-rival Hasina for graft in 2018.

The president and army chief also met late Monday, alongside key opposition leaders, with the president's press team saying it had been "decided to form an interim government immediately".

It was not immediately clear if Waker would lead it.

Security forces had supported Hasina's government throughout the unrest, which began last month in the form of protests against civil service job quotas and then escalated into wider calls for her to stand down.

Hasina, 76, fled the country by helicopter, a source close to the ousted leader told AFP.

Media in neighbouring India reported Hasina had landed at a military airbase near New Delhi.

A top-level source said she wanted to "transit" on to London, but calls by the British government for a UN-led investigation into "unprecedented levels of violence" put that into doubt.

Bangladesh's military said they had shut Dhaka's international airport on Monday evening, without giving a reason.

There were widespread calls by protesters to ensure Hasina's close allies remained in the country.

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center, warned that Hasina's departure "would leave a major vacuum" and that the country was in "uncharted territory".

"The coming days are critical," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the importance of a "peaceful, orderly and democratic transition", his spokesman said. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed that call. 

Former colonial ruler Britain and the United States meanwhile urged "calm".

Demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

The protests escalated despite the scheme being scaled back by Bangladesh's top court.

The latest violence took the total number of people killed since protests began to at least 366, according to an AFP tally based on police, government officials and doctors at hospitals.

Soldiers and police in several cases did not intervene to stem Sunday's protests, unlike during the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns.

Bangladesh has a long history of coups.

The military declared an emergency in January 2007 after widespread political unrest and installed a military-backed caretaker government for two years.

Hasina then ruled Bangladesh from 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government was 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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Dhaka, Bangladesh - July 19, 2024

Text by Shafiqul Alam

Photo by Munir Uz Zaman

Video by Mohammad Mazed

Bangladeshi students set fire to the country's state broadcaster on Thursday as protests against civil service hiring rules escalated, with the death toll mounting to at least 39 and authorities imposing what one monitor called a "near-total" internet blackout.

Police fired rubber bullets at hundreds of protesters, who fought back and chased retreating officers to the headquarters of Bangladesh Television (BTV) in the capital Dhaka.

Demonstrators set ablaze the broadcaster's reception building and dozens of vehicles parked outside. A station executive later told AFP that staff had safely evacuated the building.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave a national address on the network seeking to calm the escalating clashes.

"Our first demand is that the prime minister must apologise to us," protester Bidisha Rimjhim, 18, told AFP. 

"Secondly, justice must be ensured for our killed brothers," she added.

As night fell, Bangladesh was plunged into a "near-total" internet shutdown, outage monitor NetBlocks said.

It said the latest outage "follows earlier efforts to throttle social media and restrict mobile data services" -- key communication tools for protest organisers.

Near-daily marches this month have demanded an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Hasina's government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamping out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Her administration this week ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police step up efforts to bring the deteriorating law and order situation under control.

Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladesh expert at the University of Oslo in Norway, said the protests had grown into a wider expression of discontent with Hasina's autocratic rule.

"They are protesting against the repressive nature of the state," he told AFP. "The students are in fact calling her a dictator."

Hasina appeared on BTV on Wednesday night to condemn the "murder" of protesters and vow that those responsible would be punished regardless of political affiliation.

But the violence worsened despite her appeal for calm, and police again attempted to break up demonstrations with rubber bullets and tear gas volleys.

At least 32 people were killed on Thursday in addition to seven killed earlier in the week, according to an AFP tally based on hospital data.

Police weaponry was the cause of at least two-thirds of those deaths, based on descriptions given to AFP by hospital figures. 

"We've got seven dead here," an official at Uttara Crescent Hospital in Dhaka, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, told AFP. 

"The first two were students with rubber bullet injuries. The other five had gunshot injuries."

Nearly 1,000 others had been treated at the hospital for injuries sustained during clashes, the official said, adding many had rubber bullet wounds. 

Didar Malekin of the online news outlet Dhaka Times told AFP that Mehedi Hasan, one of his reporters, had been killed while covering clashes in the capital.

Several cities across Bangladesh saw violence throughout the day as riot police marched on protesters who had begun another round of human blockades on roads and highways.

In Dhaka, protesters set fire to around a dozen vehicles at the entrance of the national disaster management agency.

Helicopters rescued 60 police officers who were trapped on the roof of a campus building at Canadian University, the scene of some of Dhaka's fiercest clashes, the elite Rapid Action Battalion police force said in a statement.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric appealed for "restraint from all sides".

"We urge the government to ensure a conducive environment for dialogue. And we encourage protesters to engage in dialogue to resolve the deadlock," he told reporters. 

"Violence is never a solution."

Before the evening internet shutdown, junior telecommunications minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told reporters that social media had been "weaponised as a tool to spread rumours, lies and disinformation".

Along with police crackdowns, demonstrators and students allied to the premier's ruling Awami League have also battled each other on the streets with hurled bricks and bamboo rods. 

Rights group Amnesty International said video evidence from clashes this week showed that Bangladeshi security forces had used unlawful force.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Dhaka, Bangladesh - July 17, 2024

Text by Shafiqul Alam

Photo by Munir Uz Zaman

Video by Mohammad Mazed

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vowed Wednesday to punish those responsible for killing six people in ongoing student protests over civil service hiring rules, hours after police forcibly dispersed a funeral ceremony to mourn the dead.

Six people were killed Tuesday in clashes around the country as rival student groups attacked each other with hurled bricks and bamboo rods, and police dispersed rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The worst day of violence since demonstrations against public sector job quotas began this month prompted Hasina's government to order the closure of schools and universities nationwide until further notice. 

Hasina, whose administration is accused by protesters of misusing the quota scheme to stack coveted government jobs with loyalists, condemned the killings and insisted that perpetrators would be brought to justice.

"I condemn every murder," she said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday evening, after a day of clashes between police forces and demonstrators.

"I firmly declare that those who carried out murders, looting and violence -- whoever they are -- I will make sure they will be given the appropriate punishment."

Her speech did not assign responsibility for Tuesday's deaths, but descriptions from hospital authorities and students given to AFP earlier suggest at least some of the victims died when police fired non-lethal weapons to quell demonstrations.

Earlier around 500 protesters staged a public funeral ceremony at the capital's prestigious Dhaka University, carrying six coffins draped with the red and green national flag to symbolise those killed the previous day. 

But riot police had already cordoned off roads leading to the campus with barbed wire and stopped the procession with tear gas volleys and stun grenades soon after it began.

Students at the university had spent Tuesday night scouring dormitories and expelling pro-government classmates in what they said was a bid to end the violence.

Members of the student wing of Hasina's ruling Awami League party had clashed with demonstrators over the previous two days, resulting in at least 400 injuries on Monday.

"When students were killed yesterday, it caused massive anger," Dhaka University masters student Abdullah Mohammad Ruhel told AFP.

"It was like a domino effect. The female students started kicking out the Awami League students first, then the male dormitories followed."

Others on campus told AFP that all members of the governing party's youth wing had been ordered to leave their dorms, and those who refused were dragged out. 

The government told every school and university in the country to shut indefinitely late Tuesday, soon after deploying paramilitary forces in several big cities to restore order.

Police later raided the headquarters of the country's main opposition party in central Dhaka, arresting seven members of its student wing. 

Detective branch chief Harun-or-Rashid told reporters that officers had found a cache of Molotov cocktails and other weapons at the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) offices.

Internet users around Bangladesh reported widespread outages of Facebook, the main platform used to organise the protests.

Online freedom watchdog Netblocks said "multiple internet providers" in Bangladesh had completely restricted access to the social media platform in the wake of Tuesday's crackdown. 

Protests nonetheless continued around the country on Wednesday, with police firing tear gas to disperse another demonstration blocking a highway outside Barisal, the southern city's police commissioner Jehadul Kabir told AFP.

"Our protests will also continue no matter how much violence they can unleash on us," Dhaka University student Chamon Fariya Islam told AFP.

Near-daily marches this month have demanded an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

"If you are a university student in today's Bangladesh, you would know how dangerously uncertain your future is," Asif Saleh, the director of one of Bangladesh's largest charity BRAC, wrote on Facebook in response to the unrest. 

"My inbox is flooded with requests seeking jobs. If I go to a village, fathers will tell me, 'I spent so much to educate my son, but he can't get work.'"

Rights watchdog Amnesty International and the US State Department have both condemned this week's clashes and urged Hasina's government not to crack down on peaceful demonstrators.