Students chant slogans during a protest march in Dhaka on August 3, 2024, demanding justice for victims arrested and killed in recent violence over employment quotas across the country. Agency, Getty Images)
Munir Uzi Zaman | AFP | Getty Images
Clashes in Bangladesh on Sunday left at least 43 people dead and hundreds injured as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of protesters calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.
The government announced an indefinite nationwide curfew from 6pm (1200 GMT) on Sunday, the first such measure amid the current protests that began last month. It also announced a three-day holiday starting Monday.
The unrest, which prompted the government to shut down internet services, is Hasina’s biggest test since January, when she won a fourth consecutive term in an election boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Deadly protests broke out.
Hasina’s critics and rights groups have accused her government of using excessive force to suppress the movement, a charge she and her ministers deny.
Violence spread across the country on Sunday as demonstrators blocked major highways and student protesters launched a non-cooperation plan urging the government to resign.
“The people protesting in the streets now are not students but terrorists who are trying to destabilize the country,” Hasina said after a meeting of the National Security Agency.
“I call on our compatriots to use forceful measures to suppress these terrorists.”
The violence has rocked the country of 170 million people, with police stations and ruling party offices targeted.
Police and witnesses said fierce clashes broke out in many places in the capital Dhaka, leaving at least five people dead and dozens injured.
Two construction workers died and 30 others were injured on their way to work in clashes between protesters, police and ruling party activists in the central district of Munsiganj, witnesses said.
“They died of gunshot wounds when they were brought to the hospital,” regional hospital director Abu Hena Mohammed Gamal said.
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Police said they did not fire any bullets and said the injuries were caused by improvised explosives that detonated as the area turned into a battlefield.
Witnesses said at least three people were killed and 50 injured in clashes between protesters and activists from Hasina’s ruling Awami League party in the northeastern district of Pabna.
Hospital officials said three people were killed in the violence in the northern Bogura district and 30 people died in 12 other districts.
“Attacks on hospitals are unacceptable,” Health Minister Samantha Larson said after a group vandalized a Dhaka medical college hospital and set fire to vehicles, including an ambulance.
Mobile operators say the government has shut down high-speed internet services for the second time amid recent protests. Social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp are unavailable even through broadband connections.
Bangladeshi authorities on Sunday instructed the country’s telecommunications companies to shut down 4G, effectively disabling network services, according to a confidential government memo seen by Reuters.
“Please turn off all 4G services until further notice, only 2G services are available,” the document released by the National Telecommunications Monitoring Center, the government intelligence agency, said.
Telecom companies were previously told their licenses would be revoked if they did not comply with government orders, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The telecoms regulator did not respond to calls from Reuters.
Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence triggered by student groups protesting against government job quotas.
Protests were suspended after the Supreme Court lifted most quotas, but students returned sporadically to the streets last week to demand justice for the families of the victims.
“I think the genie is out of the bottle and Hasina may not put it back in the bottle,” said Shakeel Ahmed, associate professor of government and politics at Jahangirnagar University.
“The prime minister should form a national government immediately to promote greater unity.”
