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[VIDEOS] Bangladesh army chief confirms PM Hasina’s resignation [Update at Post#189]

Varun said:
At least the reservation is for 1971 war veterans' kids - ie: will disappear in another generation.

Here in India it's an endless cesspit on SC/ST/OBC.
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back to topic: Do you think kids of 1971 war veterans are in their 20s now??? Its been 50+ years bhai. This reservation is meant for 3rd or 4th generation of war veterans in Bangladesh and seems like for perpetuity.
 
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Bangladesh court scraps most job quotas after deadly unrest

Bangladesh's top court has scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs that had sparked violent clashes across the country that have killed at least 100 people.

A third of public sector jobs had been reserved for the relatives of veterans from the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

But now the court has ruled just 5% of the roles can be reserved for veterans relatives.

The government has not yet responded to the ruling.

Streets in the capital Dhaka are deserted as a second day of curfew is in force, but sporadic clashes have been reported in some areas.

There are also unconfirmed reports that some of the leaders have been arrested.

Thousands of university students have been agitating for weeks against the quota system, which they say is discriminatory and should be replaced by recruitment based on merit.

It is not immediately clear how the protesters will react to the Supreme Court decision, but some protest group leaders are also demanding justice for the killings.

At least 50 people were killed in clashes on Friday alone.

The Supreme Court ruling orders that 93% of public sector jobs should be recruited on merit, leaving 5% for the family members of the veterans of the country's independence war.

A remaining 2% is reserved for people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities.

Scrapped in 2018 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, the quota system was reinstated by a lower court last month.

That decision sparked huge protests across the country and a deadly government crackdown, including a curfew and a communications blackout.

The protests have been a long time coming. Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but experts point out that growth has not translated into jobs for university graduates.

Estimates suggest that around 18 million young Bangladeshis are looking for jobs. University graduates face higher rates of unemployment than their less-educated peers.

BBC
 
RahulBose said:
Well, it probably would take 200 to 300 years of protection.
Or abolishment of last names. We can take any path .
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So another 200-300 years of people scoring 62/100 and getting a job that somebody who scored 93/100 cannot?

And then throwing a hissy fit by blocking railway tracks to grab another 5% of the quota pie.

Useless.
 
Varun said:
So another 200-300 years of people scoring 62/100 and getting a job that somebody who scored 93/100 cannot?

And then throwing a hissy fit by blocking railway tracks to grab another 5% of the quota pie.

Useless.
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200 to 300 years of allowing families to develop in a way that uplifts the collective cognitive ability.

Why do you think some children score 62 and other score 93.

It is the methodology provided by families when they are growing up.
The humans are the same, but nurture provided by families is different.

They need protection so that with each new generation, the cognitive development improves.

India cannot develop unless everyone develops
 
RahulBose said:
200 to 300 years of allowing families to develop in a way that uplifts the collective cognitive ability.

Why do you think some children score 62 and other score 93.

It is the methodology provided by families when they are growing up.
The humans are the same, but nurture provided by families is different.

They need protection so that with each new generation, the cognitive development improves.

India cannot develop unless everyone develops
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Give them free uniforms, free textbooks, free computers, everything. Just not free jobs and education seats outright.

Fair?
 
Varun said:
Give them free uniforms, free textbooks, free computers, everything. Just not free jobs and education seats outright.

Fair?
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After swinging back and forth half a dozen times on reservations, affirmative action etc., I too have come around to the view that it's currently causing more harm than good in developing countries like India and Bangladesh. The focus needs to be on ensuring that kids from historically underprivileged and backward communities complete a certain level of education...say 12th grade or high school as it's called in some countries. Once we get there, we can study to see if it automatically solves the problem of under representation in higher education, jobs etc. before we take further action.

I understand there's political implications to this rollback but maybe we can solve that with financial incentives - say payments to families whose kids finish schooling at various levels - kindergarten, primary, secondary, matriculation. I think a clever politician could sell this...actual money in the hands of families while also improving outcomes for children's education. Right now, the benefits of reservation are going to the very few in these communities. We need to widen the net to get the kids educated.
 
Varun said:
Give them free uniforms, free textbooks, free computers, everything. Just not free jobs and education seats outright.

Fair?
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Give them same representation in the society that every affluent group in India gets as a birth right, just because they are born into one.

The problem is really about groupism.

We can remove privilege from affluent groups or provide additional privilege to other groups.

Point is, India is a welfare country (described in the constitution) and in a welfare country, the affluent are responsible for the upliftment of everyone .
 
‘It’s not about the rights of the students anymore’

The students leading the demonstrations against Bangladesh’s government are pressing for the release of those detained. Police, meanwhile, say they aren’t responsible for the disappearance of some protesters.

Business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, said the demonstrations are now more than just against the job quota system that was rolled back by the Supreme Court on Sunday.

“It’s not about the rights of the students anymore. Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government,” he said.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been accused in the past of extrajudicial killings of opposition activists.

Al Jazeera
 
Curfew continues as death toll mounts

Bangladesh continues to enforce a nationwide curfew to quash student-led demonstrations with military personnel and police patrolling the largely deserted streets of the capital, Dhaka.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan says the curfew will continue “until the situation improves”.

Dozens of people have been killed and several thousand injured. A nationwide internet blackout has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.

Soldiers set up checkpoints on Saturday shortly after the government ordered a curfew to block the protests that sharply escalated last week.

Al Jazeera
 
RahulBose said:
200 to 300 years of allowing families to develop in a way that uplifts the collective cognitive ability.

Why do you think some children score 62 and other score 93.

It is the methodology provided by families when they are growing up.
The humans are the same, but nurture provided by families is different.

They need protection so that with each new generation, the cognitive development improves.

India cannot develop unless everyone develops
Click to expand...
This is one of the mistakes that have been made by the western sociologists long ago.

You can not use the same standard to measure collective cognitive ability for people living in urban areas and say people living in hills. Change the matrices and the result of collective cognitive ability will be reversed.

I agree with you on the whole approach but this is something won't hold much gravity if we get in to serious discussion.
 
Itachi said:
This is one of the mistakes that have been made by the western sociologists long ago.

You can not use the same standard to measure collective cognitive ability for people living in urban areas and say people living in hills. Change the matrices and the result of collective cognitive ability will be reversed.

I agree with you on the whole approach but this is something won't hold much gravity if we get in to serious discussion.
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Do you think Humans are different depending upon which family they are born into???
Nature vs nurture.
From my own life , I have found that you can change your entire cognitive outlook, if you change your habits.
All we need to do is impart the correct habits to these people and they would produce the same output.
I agree , the hill people would have different cognitive development as compared to urban folks.
But in India , the cognitive development is different depending upon which family you are born into, because the parents itself do not which habits to inculcate in kids.
 
Bangladesh Student Group Says It Won’t Call Off Protests As Soldiers Patrol Cities Amid Unrest

A Bangladeshi student group whose demonstrations against civil service hiring rules precipitated serious nationwide unrest said Sunday it would not abandon protests despite a Supreme Court ruling partially meeting their demands.

“We won’t call off our protests until the government issues an order reflecting our demands,” a spokesman for Students Against Discrimination told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Bangladesh’s top court on Sunday pared back contentious civil service hiring rules but failed to mollify university student leaders, whose demonstrations against the scheme sparked nationwide clashes that have killed 151 people.

Ruling on an appeal, the Supreme Court ordered that the veterans’ quota be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit. The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people.

What began as a protest against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed this week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.


www.news18.com

Bangladesh Student Group Says It Won’t Call Off Protests As Soldiers Patrol Cities Amid Unrest - News18

A Bangladeshi student group whose demonstrations against civil service hiring rules precipitated serious nationwide unrest said Sunday it would not abandon protests despite a Supreme Court ruling partially meeting their demands.
www.news18.com www.news18.com
 

UAE jails 57 Bangladeshis for protests: WAM​


The United Arab Emirates has handed prison sentences to 57 Bangladeshi expatriates for protesting against their government while in the Gulf country, state media reported Monday.

Three were sentenced to life, 53 others to 10 years in prison and one to 11 years for organising and participating in rallies across the UAE, the official Emirati news agency WAM said, as deadly unrest sweeps Bangladesh.

 
Bangladesh PM Hasina blames opposition for violence, curfew to remain

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blamed her political opponents for deadly violence that swept the country during recent student-led protests against quotas in government jobs, stating on Monday that a curfew would be lifted when the situation improved.

Her comments came a day after the South Asian country's top court agreed to scrap most quotas in a ruling on Sunday, following days of clashes between protesters and security forces that prompted the government to shut down internet services, impose a curfew and deploy the army.

Hospital data showed at least 147 people were killed in one of the worst outbreaks of violence in recent years.

Hasina, 76, won a fourth-straight term in power in January in a national election boycotted by the main opposition party.

"When arson terrorism started, the protesting students said they were not involved in it," Hasina said in an address to business leaders in the capital Dhaka, her first comments since her government ordered a curfew late on Friday.


 
I am seeing on social media that RAW agents are helping Awami League in killing protesters. If true, that's a new low for both Awami League and RAW.
 
Security Forces Target Unarmed Students

The Bangladeshi government has deployed the army against student protesters, imposed shoot-on-sight curfew orders, and shut down mobile data and internet services, Human Rights Watch said today. These actions followed violent protests against excesses by security forces to quell a peaceful student protest campaign.

With more than 160 people killed, foreign governments should immediately call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her administration to end the use of excessive force against protesters and hold troops to account for human rights abuses.

“Bangladesh has been troubled for a long time due to unfettered security force abuses against anyone who opposes the Sheikh Hasina government, and we are witnessing that same playbook again, this time to attack unarmed student protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now is the time for influential governments to press Sheikh Hasina to stop her forces from brutalizing students and other protesters.”

In early July 2024, tens of thousands of university students began peacefully protesting after a High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh ruling restoring quotas in government jobs for various categories of people, particularly the 30 percent for descendants of those who had joined the war for independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Students contended that the quota for war veterans would unfairly benefit government supporters. On July 15, members of the Chhatra League (BCL), the student group affiliated with Prime Minister Hasina’s Awami League Party, backed by police, attacked the protesters, killing six people.

Protests spread to several cities and universities across the country following the July 15 attack, leading to deadly clashes between protesters and the pro-government supporters and security forces, with hundreds killed or wounded. Security forces have used live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets to disperse protesters. With the internet shut down, reliable information is difficult to get; Agence France-Presse said that police and hospitals had reported 163 deaths, but activists fear the number is much higher. “I have never seen such cruelty,” a Dhaka resident who recently left the country told Human Rights Watch. “The security forces just kept on shooting. They were shooting at such young people. They even shot at bystanders if they tried to help protect the students.”

Several journalists were injured when assaulted by security forces and Chhatra League supporters. The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Türk, called for restraint and said the “attacks on student protesters are particularly shocking and unacceptable.”

Prime Minister Hasina, who won a fourth consecutive term after January elections that were not free or fair, had previously imposed and then withdrawn the quota. She has called for dialogue and promised an inquiry into the July 15 deaths. Educational institutions have been closed indefinitely. On July 21, the Supreme Court, hearing an appeal from the government, ruled to reduce the quota in government jobs, allocating 5 percent for descendants of independence war veterans and 2 percent for other categories.

However, students said that Sheikh Hasina has lost their trust following a statement that denounced the protesters as political traitors. The students responded by calling her an “autocrat.”

On June 18, the Bangladeshi authorities imposed a nationwide internet shutdown, critically limiting communications, access to information, and ability to share reports of human rights abuses.

The junior telecommunications minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, confirmed the shutdown, citing concerns over the spread of “fake news.” Bangladeshi media sites were unable to upload credible information, fueling dangerous rumours. “Bangladesh is in information darkness,” one activist told Human Rights Watch.

The UN Human Rights Council had said in a 2016 consensus resolution that shutting the internet to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online violates international human rights law, and that all countries should refrain from and cease such measures.

Protests continued on July 19 and 20, with several people killed by security forces. After protesters stormed a jail in Narsingdi district and set fire to the state broadcaster’s offices, the government issued curfew orders and deployed the military.

On July 22, a student leader declared a 48-hour halt to the protests, calling on the government to end the curfew, restore access to the internet, and stop targeting the student protesters.

The authorities have arrested hundreds of protest participants and organizers, and there are allegations of enforced disappearances and torture in custody. Reports trickling out of Bangladesh say that there is ongoing violence in several places where protesters, now joined by members of the political opposition, are clashing with members of the Chhatra League and security forces. Police have backed the Chhatra League attacks instead of arresting those who engaged in violence.

In a television interview, the information minister, Mohammad A. Arafat, reportedly said that the civil unrest could be quelled quickly, but the government was exercising restraint. “The government hasn’t even used five percent of its total capability in this,” he said. “If it does, it won’t take half an hour. But the government is showing patience to avoid casualties.”

The UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms prohibit the use of firearms except in cases of imminent threat of death or serious injury. The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has stated that “firearms are not an appropriate tool for the policing of assemblies, and must never be used simply to disperse an assembly.… [A]ny use of firearms by law enforcement officials in the context of assemblies must be limited to targeted individuals in circumstances in which it is strictly necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury.”

The 2020 UN guidance on “less-lethal weapons” in law enforcement says: “Multiple projectiles fired at the same time are inaccurate and, in general, their use cannot comply with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Metal pellets, such as those fired from shotguns, should never be used.”

The authorities repeatedly deny that Bangladeshi security forces have committed serious human rights violations including extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances, leading to a climate of impunity, Human Rights Watch said. Other governments, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, should place Bangladeshi security forces under increased scrutiny following the designation of human rights sanctions by the US government.

“Bangladeshi authorities have flouted international standards in the past and continue to do so during the ongoing protests,” Ganguly said. “The Sheikh Hasina government should take immediate steps to end the crisis, rein in and punish security forces and her party supporters who have committed serious crimes, and protect the rights of protesting students.”

SOURCE: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/22/bangladesh-security-forces-target-unarmed-students
 
Need something similar in India too (scrapping of the useless SC/ST/OBC quotas).
 
UAE jails 57 Bangladeshis over protests against own government

A court in the United Arab Emirates has handed 57 Bangladeshis long prison terms for holding protests in the Gulf state against their own country’s government.

Three of the unnamed defendants were sentenced to life for “inciting riots in several streets across the UAE on Friday”, while 53 others were jailed for 10 years and one for 11 years, state-run Wam news agency reported.

It cited their court-appointed defence lawyer as arguing during Sunday’s trial that the gatherings had no criminal intent and that the evidence was insufficient.

Amnesty International condemned what it called the UAE’s “extreme reaction to the mere existence of a public protest” on its soil.

Protests are effectively illegal in the UAE, where foreigners make up almost 90% of the population. Bangladeshis are the third largest expatriate group.

In Bangladesh, more than 150 people have been killed and 500 arrested during days of violence sparked by student-led demonstrations against quotas on government jobs.

On Monday some of the protest leaders gave the government a 48-hour ultimatum to lift a nationwide curfew and restore internet services. They are also demanding the resignation of officials they blame for violence against demonstrators.

The unrest is among the most serious challenges Sheikh Hasina has faced in 15 consecutive years as the country’s prime minister.

According to Wam, the trial of the 57 Bangladeshis heard that they had “organised large-scale marches in several streets of the UAE in protest against decisions made by the Bangladeshi government”.

“This led to riots, disruption of public security, obstruction of law enforcement, and endangerment of public and private property,” it said. “The police had warned the protesters, ordering them to disperse, to which they were unresponsive”.

The court rejected the defendants’ defence and ordered that they be deported after serving their sentences, Wam said.

There was no immediate comment from Bangladesh’s government. But its consulate in Dubai urged citizens to respect local laws in a social media post on Sunday.

Amnesty International’s UAE researcher, Devin Kenney, said it was the second mass trial in the UAE this month, in which dozens of people had been sentenced to “huge prison terms literally overnight, on charges involving no element of violence”.

“[The] extreme reaction to the mere existence of a public protest on Emirati soil shows that the state places great priority on suppressing any manifestation of dissent in the country," he told AFP news agency.

On 10 July, a court in the UAE handed life sentences to 43 human rights defenders and political dissidents who were convicted of “creating a terrorist organisation”.

Human rights groups said the organisation had been an “independent advocacy group” and severely criticised the mass trial as a “mockery of justice”.

BBC
 
Internet is still down in Bangladesh despite apparent calm following deadly protests

Bangladesh remained without internet for a fifth day and the government declared a public holiday Monday, as authorities maintained tight control despite apparent calm following a court order that scaled back a controversial system for allocating government jobs that sparked violent protests.

This comes after a curfew with a shoot-on-sight order was installed days earlier and military personnel could be seen patrolling the capital and other areas.

The South Asian country witnessed clashes between the police and mainly student protesters demanding an end to a quota that reserved 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The violence has killed more than a hundred people, according to at least four local newspapers. Authorities have not so far shared official figures for deaths.

There was no immediate violence reported on Monday morning after the Supreme Court ordered, the day before, the veterans’ quota to be cut to 5%. Thus, 93% of civil service jobs will be merit-based while the remaining 2% reserved for members of ethnic minorities as well as transgender and disabled people.

On Sunday night, some student protesters urged the government to restore internet services. Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told the Associated Press that they were withdrawing their calls for a complete shutdown, which they attempted to impose last week.

“But we are issuing an ultimatum for 48 hours to stop the digital crackdown and restore internet connectivity,” he said, adding that security officials deployed at various universities should be withdrawn, student dormitories reopened and steps taken so students can return to their campuses safely. Abdullah also said they wanted the government to end the curfew and ensure the country was back to normal within two days.

Students have also demanded some university officials to step down after failing to protect campuses. Sarjis Alam, another coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, said that they would continue with their protests if all their demands weren’t met. “We cannot step back from our movement like a coward,” he added.

Another key organizer of the student protests, Nahid Islam, told reporters that the internet shutdown had disrupted their ability to communicate and alleged that authorities were trying to create divisions among protesters. “I am mentally traumatized ... our unity is being destroyed,” he said.

The US Embassy in the capital Dhaka described Sunday the situation as “extremely volatile” and “unpredictable,” adding that guns, tear gas and other weapons have been used in the vicinity of the embassy. They said the Bangladeshi army had been deployed and urged Americans to be vigilant, avoid large crowds and reconsider travel plans.

The protests have posed the most serious challenge to Bangladesh’s government since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina won a fourth consecutive term in January elections that the main opposition groups boycotted. Universities have been closed, the internet has been shut off and the government has ordered people to stay at home.

Protesters had argued the quota system was discriminatory and benefited supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and wanted it replaced by a merit-based system. Hasina has defended the quota system, saying that veterans deserve the highest respect regardless of political affiliation.

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has backed the protests, vowing to organize its own demonstrations as many of its supporters joined the student-led protests.

The Awami League and the BNP have often accused each other of fueling political chaos and violence, most recently ahead of the country’s national election, which was marred by a crackdown on several opposition figures.

SOURCE: https://apnews.com/article/bangladesh-campus-violence-quota-hasina-3f9a3903487e89f1a0bc0d596d91b89b
 
Varun said:
We will never be. Ask those heroines to score good marks in exams (proper exams, not the ones with paper leaks) and they'll get a college and job of their choice.
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We are bound by the limitations of Democracy. Democracy is a robust system of governance but it will also give you the average output of the population only, not the top quality.
 
sweep_shot said:
Not my words. I posted what I saw on FB.

View attachment 145395
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Pathetic from RAW. Why couldn't they find bengali commandos for this covert mission. It is usually a challenge to send spies to Pakistan because it is hard to match Pakistani good looks, but matching Bangladeshis is easy for Indians, plus they have people who speak Bangla (like me).
 
CricketCartoons said:
Pathetic from RAW. Why couldn't they find bengali commandos for this covert mission. It is usually a challenge to send spies to Pakistan because it is hard to match Pakistani good looks, but matching Bangladeshis is easy for Indians, plus they have people who speak Bangla (like me).
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LOL.

West Bengal agents probably would get caught too. I can spot the difference between West Bengal Bangla and BD Bangla (even within BD, there are many different dialects of Bangla).
 
sweep_shot said:
LOL.

West Bengal agents probably would get caught too. I can spot the difference between West Bengal Bangla and BD Bangla (even within BD, there are many different dialects of Bangla).
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Only if they speak. I can speak like a Bangladeshi and an Indian bengali. Have spent 4 years living among Bangladeshis.
 

In Bangladesh, protests are no longer about the quota system​


It has been more than 10 days now since the start of the protests against a government job quota system. Students and youth across the country have been demonstrating against what they see as an unfair policy favouring a certain group – children of “freedom fighters” in the Bangladesh war of independence. But after the government unleashed unprecedented violence, the protests have gone beyond the demand for cancellation of the quota system.

A list of demands by students has been circulated in an underground press release.

1) The prime minister must accept responsibility for the mass killings of students and publicly apologise.

2) The home minister and the road, transport and bridges minister [the latter is also the secretary general of the Awami League], must resign from their [cabinet] positions and the party.

3) Police officers present in the sites where students were killed must be sacked.

4) Vice Chancellors of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar and Rajshahi universities must resign.

5) The police and goons who attacked the students and those who instigated the attacks must be arrested.

6) Families of the killed and injured must be compensated.

7) Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL, the pro-government student wing, which is, effectively, the government’s vigilante force] must be banned from student politics and a student union established.

8) All educational institutions and halls of residences must be reopened.

9) Guarantees must be provided that no academic or administrative harassment of protesters will take place.

That Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina publicly apologises for her disparaging comments about the protesters may seem a minor issue, but will surely be the sticking point.

This prime minister is not the apologising kind, regardless of what she does. Regardless of the allegations that she has rigged elections, regardless of the fact that corruption has been at an all-time high during her tenure, regardless of the fact that more than 100 students and other protesters have been murdered by her goons and the security forces, regardless of the fact that she has deemed all those who oppose her views to be “razakars” (collaborators of the Pakistani occupation army in 1971).

There is certainly not anyone in the negotiating camp who would have the temerity to even suggest such a course for the prime minister. There is a Bangla saying, “You only have one head on your neck.”

The ministers do the heavy lifting. They control the muscles in the streets and “manage” things when resistance brews. The ministers are high-ups in the party, and apart from the difficulty of finding suitable replacements, discarding them would send out the wrong message within the party.

Vice chancellors and proctors having to resign is an easy one. These are discardable minions. The perks are attractive and there are many to fill the ranks. The police being dumped is not as easy, as they provide some of the muscle, but “friendly fire” does take place.

Compensation is not an issue. State coffers are there to be pillaged and public funds being dispensed at party behest is a common enough practice.

The demand to ban BCL and associated student organisations in Dhaka, Jahangirnagar and Rajshahi universities is a sticking point, as they are the ones who keep the student body in check and are the party cadre called upon when there is any sign of rebellion. It is a vigilante group that can kill, kidnap or disappear at party command. For a government that lacks legitimacy, these are the foot soldiers who terrorise and are essential parts of the coercive machinery.

Educational institutions being reopened is an issue. Students have traditionally been the initiators of protests. With such simmering discontent, this would be dangerous, particularly if the local muscle power was clipped. The return of independent thinking is something all tyrants fear. The cessation of harassment is easy to implement on paper. It is difficult to prove and can be done at many levels. Removing the official charges will leave all unofficial modes intact.

Of all these demands, the apology is the least innocuous, but perhaps the most significant. It will dent the aura of invincibility the tyrant exudes. She has never apologised for anything.

Not for her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman setting up the Rakkhi Bahini, the paramilitary force which rained terror on the country. Not his setting up of Baksal, the one-party system where all other parties and all newspapers, except the four approved ones, were banned. Not the numerous extrajudicial killings and disappearances and the liturgy of corruption by people in her patronage during her own tenure.

An apology to protesting students, while simple, would be a chink in her armour she would be loathe to reveal.

Ironically, her father and the Awami League led the resistance against the Pakistani army during the genocide of 1971. The revolutionaries have now become our new occupiers. They insist Bangladesh is still a “democracy”.

By now, the body count is impossible to verify. I try to piece things together from as many firsthand reports as I can. Many of the bodies have a single, precisely targeted bullet hole. Pellets are aimed at the eyes.

International news, out of touch as the internet has been shut down and mobile connectivity severely throttled, say deaths are more than 100. Those monitoring feel that these numbers are a significant underestimate of the dead and missing. Government news report even fewer.

Staff at city hospitals are less tight-lipped and can give reasonably accurate figures, but not all bodies go to hospital morgues. An older hospital in Dhaka did report more than 200 bodies being brought in. The injured who die on the way to the hospital are not generally admitted. Families prefer to take the body home rather than hand them over to the police. Bodies are also being disappeared.

Police and postmortem reports, when available, fail to mention bullet wounds. The body of my former student Priyo was among the missing ones, but we were eventually able to locate him. A friend took him back to his home in Rangpur to be buried. Constant monitoring and checking by activists resulted in the bullet wound being mentioned in his case, though a deliberate mistake in his name in the hospital’s release order that was overseen by a police officer attempted to complicate things. Fortunately, it was rectified in the nick of time.

Getting the news out has become extremely difficult. This piece is going out through a complicated route. I have deleted all digital traces to protect the intermediaries.

The entire internet network has been brought down; a junior information technology minister has said that this is due to the “unstable situation”.

Helicopters fly low, beaming searchlights downwards. There have been reports of shots fired at people. Tear gas and stun grenade shells become lethal when dropped from a height.

A student talks of a body lying on the empty flyover being dragged off by the police. A friend talks of an unmarked car spraying bullets at the crowd as it speeds past. She was lucky. The shooter was firing from a window on the other side. A mother grieves over her three-year-old senselessly killed.

A gory report of a human brain congealed on a tarmac is a first for me. The curfew has resulted in rubbish being piled up on the streets. The brain will be there for people to see, perhaps deliberately.

The raid at 2:20 earlier this morning in the flat across the street was also in commando fashion. The video footage is blurry, but one can only see segments of the huge contingent of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), heavily armed police and others in plainclothes. They eventually walked out with one person, perhaps an opposition leader.

Armoured personnel carriers prowl the streets. Orders to shoot on sight have not quelled the anger and people are still coming onto the streets despite the curfew. There is the other side of the story. Reports of policemen being lynched and offices being set on fire are some of the violent responses to the government-led brutality.

Then there is the impact of the protests on the average person, as most working-class Bangladeshis live day-to-day. Their daily earnings feed their families. As a prime minister, who desperately clings on to a position she does not legitimately have the right to, and a public, who have been tormented enough, to battle it out, they are the ones who starve.

Private TV channels vie with the state-owned BTV and churn out government propaganda. As I watch members of the public complain on one, I am unable to forget all the average people I spoke to – the rickshaw drivers, and even fruit sellers with perishable goods – who expressed solidarity with the students. Their immediate suffering, though painful, is something they are willing to accept.

She has to go, they say.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Bangladesh Student Group Leader Suspends Protests For 2 More Days

The leader of student demonstrations in Bangladesh that spiralled into widespread violence extended a suspension of protests for 48 more hours on Tuesday.

"During the 48 hours we will not hold any protests. Our demand is the government restore the internet, withdraw the curfew, reopen campuses and protect the student protesters," Nahid Islam, the top leader of Students Against Discrimination, told news agency AFP.

NDTV
 
Bangladeshi students allege police torture after protests crackdown

Student activists in Bangladesh have alleged they were abducted and tortured during a violent police crackdown on the protests that have swept the country and led to the arrest of thousands of political opponents and government critics.

Nahid Islam, a Dhaka University student and one of the main organisers of the protest movement, which has been fighting against “discriminatory” quotas for government jobs, said he was picked up by police late last week, tortured and left unconscious on the side of the road.

Islam alleged that more than 20 officers who identified themselves as police arrived at 3am on Saturday and put him inside a car, where he was blindfolded and handcuffed. He said several other student protest organisers were also picked up by police, with four still reported missing.

“They took me somewhere I couldn’t recognise and then put me in a room where they started to question me and later torture me, first mentally and then physically,” said Islam. “They kept asking me: why are we protesting, who is behind this, what is our agenda, why we are not at talks with the government.”

The protests began on university campuses in early July, led by students outraged at the re-introduction of quotas for government jobs, which reserve 30% for the descendants of those who fought in the 1971 Bangladesh independence war.

With the country suffering an economic downturn and high youth unemployment, government jobs are widely seen as the most secure form of employment. However, the quota system, widely deemed to “unfair”, means they are rarely granted on merit.

While the demonstrations began peacefully, they began to turn violent last week after pro-government groups were accused of attacking the protesters with weapons and police began to use teargas, rubber bullets and stun grenades.

The crackdown led to violence across the country as student protesters fought back against the riot police, often armed only with crude weapons, and university campuses became war zones. Police were accused by witnesses of firing live ammunition at protesters and have been blamed for a large numbers of deaths. Unofficial figures have put the death toll at more than 150, while thousands are thought to have been injured.

On Sunday, the supreme court overturned the ruling and scaled back the quotas, meaning only 5% will now go to descendants of freedom fighters. It has led to a pause in the protests and violence, although the country is still under an internet and social media blackout and a strict curfew, with the military patrolling the streets and police granted powers to “shoot on site”.

This week, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, sought to place the blame for the unrest – some of the worst the country has seen under her government – on the opposition Bangladesh National party (BNP), which has faced a crackdown under her rule.

In a meeting broadcast on Monday, Hasina claimed to have deployed police and paramilitary forces to “protect” the students and called the violence “the attacks of the militants”.

About 2,000 people have so far been arrested, mostly members and the top leadership of the BNP along with several student organisers, as Hasina’s government is accused of trying to shift the blame for the violence and fatalities away from state agencies. A BNP spokesperson said that about 1,500 party members had been detained.

Islam described how once he was in police detention, officers began a game of mental torture, threatening to create fake charges against him, label him as a terrorist and “disappear” him so his family would not know his whereabouts.

Then, he alleged, the physical abuse began. “They used metal rods and started beating on my joints, on my shoulders and particularly on my left leg. That leg has the most severe injuries. At some point I fell unconscious to the unbearable pain.” He said that when he awoke he found himself lying by the roadside in the capital, Dhaka.

Islam was disparaging of Hasina’s claims she tried to have a dialogue with the students, alleging that the authorities instead resorted to violence to try to shut them down, a widely documented tactic deployed by her government against critics over her 15 years in power.

He was among the organisers who said that the protests had not shut down after Monday’s supreme court verdict, but were on pause as they waited for the government to respond to several of their demands, including for the new reduced quota to be affirmed by parliament and for compensation be given to families of those killed in the violence.

Speaking on Tuesday afternoon, Hasib al-Islam, another student organiser, said students were extending their ultimatum to the government for another 48 hours, during which time they would hold off all further protest.

Al-Islam said: “In this time we demand the authorities restore the internet in the country, withdraw the curfew, reopen the universities and ensure the safety of the students and the protesters, including the safe return of the four protest coordinators who allegedly are missing.”

The Bangladeshi Nobel peace rize laureate, Muhammad Yunus, urged “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence”, adding that “young people are being killed at random every day”.

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/a...police-tortured-them-after-protests-crackdown
 
Death toll rises to 201 in Bangladesh student protests

The death toll from student protests in Bangladesh rose to 201 Thursday with four more people dying in the capital Dhaka and the surrounding area as a crackdown intensified against opposition parties, according to officials and local media.

An ongoing curfew and military deployment that came into effect on Saturday continued, with a break from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Offices and industries resumed operations on Wednesday during the same break periods, according to a government announcement.

Earlier, Law Minister Anisul Haq said the curfew would be withdrawn gradually, observing the situation.

Inspector Bachchu Mia, who is in charge of the police outpost at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), confirmed to Anadolu three new deaths Wednesday night. More people are undergoing treatment at the hospital, he said.

One more person died in Savar on the outskirts of the capital on the same day.

With these four, the death toll rose to 201. Most of the victims succumbed to bullet wounds, the national newspaper Prothom Alo said Thursday.

Anjuman Mufidul Islam, a local welfare organization that provides burial services to Muslims, buried 21 bodies.

In the last three days, the police handed over the bodies of the 21 victims to the organization, including from DMCH during the protests, Kamrul Ahmed, an official of the organization, told Anadolu.

“We have buried the bodies. We did the job as routine work. Police kept the DNA samples and other details for future records and claims,” he added.

Bangladesh has witnessed unprecedented protests and violence since the first of this month over calls for reforms in the quota system for coveted public service jobs in the country, which students regard as deeply unfair.

Since July 16, protests have intensified after police and ruling party members, including its student wing the Bangladesh Students’ League, reportedly attacked students on university campuses across the country.

The government, however, issued a gazette reforming the quota system, cutting down the quota to 7% from 56% following the protests.

Protesting students, however, demanded that campuses reopen and bring normalcy to the country, and then they would determine the next course of action.

Police arrested around 4,500 people in the last eight days, including 1,400 on Wednesday. Many of the those arrested belong to the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, according to Prothom Alo.

On Wednesday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan blamed opposition parties for the violence during the agitation for reform in the government jobs quota.

"We will identify them one by one with all of our strength. They will face legal consequences. We will not back down to ensure it," the minister said.

SOURCE: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/death-toll-rises-to-201-in-bangladesh-student-protests/3284838
 
sweep_shot said:
Not my words. I posted what I saw on FB.

View attachment 145395
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If anybody has any verified information, they should send it to the Indian opposition. Solid news that the Indian government is risking it's soldiers to help a neighboring Muslim government could be dynamite in the hands of the opposition and could easily bring down the Modi government. None of the coalition partners would risk suicide by supporting a government doing this. Your fondest dreams would come true.

Bangladesh has a massive military well experienced in urban warfare and doesn't need help from India or any other country to control it's own population.
 
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Both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia should have never entered politics. 25 years of catfight turned out to be very deadly and costly for Bangladesh.

Hasina is 76 now. Maybe she will quit politics . I hope next leaders (governing and opposition) of Bangladesh will be males.
 
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Bangladesh government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in anti-government protests in America, Foreign Office's response

Islamabad: The spokesperson of the Foreign Office has responded to the Bangladeshi government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in the anti-government protests in the United States.

According to the details, the spokesperson of Pakistan Foreign Office Mumtaz Zahra Baloch rejected the Bangladesh government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in anti-government protests in America.

The spokesman said, "We have no reports to confirm the claims. The mission in Dhaka had also instructed Pakistani students in Bangladesh to stay away from the protest."

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that we have seen reports of violence at Manchester Airport, our mission is in touch with the Haqistan community and the administration, the youth in the video had dual citizenship.

Source: ARY News
 
sweep_shot said:
Both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia should have never entered politics. 25 years of catfight turned out to be very deadly and costly for Bangladesh.

Hasina is 76 now. Maybe she will quit politics . I hope next leaders (governing and opposition) of Bangladesh will be males.
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Males only? What you have against females?
 
FearlessRoar said:
Bangladesh government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in anti-government protests in America, Foreign Office's response

Islamabad: The spokesperson of the Foreign Office has responded to the Bangladeshi government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in the anti-government protests in the United States.

According to the details, the spokesperson of Pakistan Foreign Office Mumtaz Zahra Baloch rejected the Bangladesh government's claim of involvement of Pakistani students in anti-government protests in America.

The spokesman said, "We have no reports to confirm the claims. The mission in Dhaka had also instructed Pakistani students in Bangladesh to stay away from the protest."

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that we have seen reports of violence at Manchester Airport, our mission is in touch with the Haqistan community and the administration, the youth in the video had dual citizenship.

Source: ARY News
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Bangladesh govt must be getting pretty desperate if they are blaming Pakistan for their own stupid policies of reserving 30% jobs for 1971 war families. Things must be even worse than we thought.
 
IndoorCricket said:
Whats the basis for your belief??
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Commander-in-chief/Leader of a nation should be a male because they are more well-equipped to handle this job (biologically and emotionally).

Hasina has a track record of being charmed by Indian leaders and compromising Bangladeshi interests. Khaleda Zia has also ruined her party's good name.

Let's say a war is taking place. Who would you rather have in charge? It is a serious time and there is no time to consider gender equality or feminism.
 
BouncerGuy said:
Bangladesh court scraps most job quotas after deadly unrest

Bangladesh's top court has scrapped most of the quotas on government jobs that had sparked violent clashes across the country that have killed at least 100 people.

A third of public sector jobs had been reserved for the relatives of veterans from the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

But now the court has ruled just 5% of the roles can be reserved for veterans relatives.

The government has not yet responded to the ruling.

Streets in the capital Dhaka are deserted as a second day of curfew is in force, but sporadic clashes have been reported in some areas.

There are also unconfirmed reports that some of the leaders have been arrested.

Thousands of university students have been agitating for weeks against the quota system, which they say is discriminatory and should be replaced by recruitment based on merit.

It is not immediately clear how the protesters will react to the Supreme Court decision, but some protest group leaders are also demanding justice for the killings.

At least 50 people were killed in clashes on Friday alone.

The Supreme Court ruling orders that 93% of public sector jobs should be recruited on merit, leaving 5% for the family members of the veterans of the country's independence war.

A remaining 2% is reserved for people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities.

Scrapped in 2018 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, the quota system was reinstated by a lower court last month.

That decision sparked huge protests across the country and a deadly government crackdown, including a curfew and a communications blackout.

The protests have been a long time coming. Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but experts point out that growth has not translated into jobs for university graduates.

Estimates suggest that around 18 million young Bangladeshis are looking for jobs. University graduates face higher rates of unemployment than their less-educated peers.

BBC
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Well done, Bangladesh.
I wish Indian courts and politicians could get the spine to scrap reservations in India, particularly for the so-called 'OBCs'.
Some of these communities are super rich and very well connected politically. Yet they shamelessly claim reservations.
 
gani999 said:
Well done, Bangladesh.
I wish Indian courts and politicians could get the spine to scrap reservations in India, particularly for the so-called 'OBCs'.
Some of these communities are super rich and very well connected politically. Yet they shamelessly claim reservations.
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They will not.

Upper castes will be guilt tripped for ever on the Caste discrimination of the past centuries. Its a shame that many of the Dalits who have been using the reservations for more than 2 generations are already well off. But they still continue to use it shamelessly. The real poor people get no benefits from Government. They suffer due to the caste they are born in.
 
Champ_Pal said:
His faith tells them that a nation should be led by a man.

No nation prospers if it is led by a female.@sweep_shot is a true Muslim. He does not seem to compromise. I respect him for that.
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It's an absurd belief but sure respect for holding on to it.
 
Red-Indian said:
It's an absurd belief but sure respect for holding on to it.
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Champ_Pal said:
His faith tells them that a nation should be led by a man.

No nation prospers if it is led by a female.@sweep_shot is a true Muslim. He does not seem to compromise. I respect him for that.
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I actually do not know this ruling well. Have to check with scholars to get a better understanding.

My comment was a general comment (it wasn't religious in nature).
 
sweep_shot said:
I actually do not know this ruling well. Have to check with scholars to get a better understanding.

My comment was a general comment (it wasn't religious in nature).
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After how ruthless Sheikh Hasina has been in power, I'm surprised you'd think a male would be better as Commander. She seems like a great person to be in charge if you were in a war. Your views can likely only have been formed by your religious or cultural background so yeah respect for holding to them against all science and logic.
 
Red-Indian said:
After how ruthless Sheikh Hasina has been in power, I'm surprised you'd think a male would be better as Commander. She seems like a great person to be in charge if you were in a war. Your views can likely only have been formed by your religious or cultural background so yeah respect for holding to them against all science and logic.
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Against all science and logic? LOL.

Nope. Common sense says male should be the leader. That has been the case for hundreds of years in human history.

I love science. I am a man of science. I just don't love science corrupted by feminists/others with agendas.

Anyway, Hasina is a dictator. She is not a role model for leadership. Last great Bangladeshi leader was Ershad.
 
sweep_shot said:
I actually do not know this ruling well. Have to check with scholars to get a better understanding.

My comment was a general comment (it wasn't religious in nature).
Click to expand...
Your thinking is in accordance with your beliefs. You are awesome.
 
sweep_shot said:
Against all science and logic? LOL.

Nope. Common sense says male should be the leader. That has been the case for hundreds of years in human history.

I love science. I am a man of science. I just don't love science corrupted by feminists/others with agendas.

Anyway, Hasina is a dictator. She is not a role model for leadership. Last great Bangladeshi leader was Ershad.
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It was back when people used to fight with swords and sticks and hunt or do hard manual labor to feed families. Modern warfare does not need a man to push a button to destroy enemies.
 
sweep_shot said:
Against all science and logic? LOL.

Nope. Common sense says male should be the leader. That has been the case for hundreds of years in human history.
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But it worked for Bangladesh history due to Indira Gandhi though. Cross check with your scholar and get back to me :)
 
Local.Dada said:
But it worked for Bangladesh history due to Indira Gandhi though. Cross check with your scholar and get back to me :)
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I thought you left TP. LOL.

It worked throughout the human history. Looks like you are ignorant not just about Canada but also basic human history.

Anyway, do not derail this thread. Not sure why you are bringing in Indira Gandhi here.
 
Metro Rail damage during the unrest is worth around $42-million USD (500 crores in BDT). Big damage.

Metro rail faces 500C damage as no clear timeline for restart​


Arson attacks on the metro rail stations on July 19, have caused extensive damage

The Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited (DMTCL) is facing significant challenges following the vandalism and arson attacks on its Mirpur-10 and Kazipara metro rail stations on July 19, which have caused extensive damage.

MAN Siddique, managing director of DMTCL, said on Thursday that the reopening of the metro rail will be announced based on the overall situation.

The DMTCL managing director told the media on Thursday regarding this.

He said: "There has been significant damage to the two stations (Mirpur and Kazipara stations). When the metro rail will be operational will be announced considering the overall situation."

On July 19, miscreants vandalized and set fire to Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations of the metrorail.

Both stations were severely damaged as a result hese two stations are not being started soon.

DMTCL has formed an eight-member committee to assess the damages, led by the Additional Project Director (Electrical, Signal, Telecommunication, and Track), Joint Secretary Md Zakaria.

Sources from the metro rail have reported that it could take six months to a year to resume operations at the Mirpur-10 and Kazipara metro rail stations. All damaged machinery will be replaced, and technical processes will also need to be completed.


The entire e-system at the Mirpur-10 station has been destroyed. Reinstating this system may cost around Tk250 crore.

More than half of the e-system at the Kazipara station has been damaged, with repairs likely to cost Tk100 crore.

In addition to the e-system, the repair of punch machines, vending machines, various devices, and computers at both stations could cost an additional Tk200 crore, sources added.

The total damage to the Mirpur-10 and Kazipara stations is around Tk500 crore.
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Reference: https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/dhaka/352689/metro-rail-faces-tk500c-damage-as-no-clear.
 
Cricket Warrior said:
its insane!

thats not the way to protest in which they r damaging properties of their own countrymen.
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This didn't start off like this. Protest was peaceful in the beginning. But, Awami League started to use deadly force (hundreds died). People became angry and started to vandalize.

500 crores damage is just for this one metro rail. There are other damages too (Bangladesh Television building was set on fire also).
 
sweep_shot said:
This didn't start off like this. Protest was peaceful in the beginning. But, Awami League started to use deadly force (hundreds died). People became angry and started to vandalize.

500 crores damage is just for this one metro rail. There are other damages too (Bangladesh Television building was set on fire also).
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Awami league is the one who is in power right now that haseena wajid's one... right?

Yeah that was a stupid move to use force it only created more of a mess.
 
Cricket Warrior said:
Awami league is the one who is in power right now that haseena wajid's one... right?

Yeah that was a stupid move to use force it only created more of a mess.
Click to expand...

Yes. They are forcefully in power for the past 10-15 years. There hasn't been a proper election since 2008.

But, it feels different with this protest. People are really angry. Protests are happening in whole country. Even Bangladeshis living outside of BD are looking to retaliate by cutting off/reducing remittances. Remittance is a big source of income for BD.
 
sweep_shot said:
Against all science and logic? LOL.

Nope. Common sense says male should be the leader. That has been the case for hundreds of years in human history.

I love science. I am a man of science. I just don't love science corrupted by feminists/others with agendas.

Anyway, Hasina is a dictator. She is not a role model for leadership. Last great Bangladeshi leader was Ershad.
Click to expand...
If Science were a religion this post would have been treated as hate speech! :p
 
Bangladesh curfew eases: What’s opened, what’s still shut

Bangladesh has started to relax a curfew that it imposed after days of deadly clashes between student protesters demanding reforms to a job quota system and a combination of law enforcement officials and members and supporters of the governing party’s youth wing.

Deaths, arrests, and shoot-at-sight orders against those violating the curfew had left the nation of 170 million people gripped in tension, while a telecommunications blackout had cut Bangladesh off from the rest of the world.

What is the latest on Bangladesh quota protests?

The protests that started early in July called for the reform of the South Asian country’s quota system, where 30 percent of government jobs were reserved for descendants of veterans who fought for Bangladesh in the 1971 war.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court scaled back the quotas. The 30 percent quota for veterans’ descendants was cut to 5 percent while limiting a 2 percent quota for ethnic minorities, transgender people and disabled people, leaving 93 percent of the jobs based on merit.

Two days later, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government issued a letter welcoming the ruling.

While the protesters agreed that the Supreme Court order and the government’s subsequent acceptance fulfilled their early demands of reforming the quota system, they now have renewed demands after more than 150 student protesters were killed and nearly 2,700 arrested, according to local media.

The protests turned violent on July 15 after members of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of Hasina’s Awami League party, allegedly attacked the protesters. Police cracked down on the protests and imposed a curfew. Students were asked to vacate universities, which were shut down, as were schools. Businesses closed down and there was a nationwide internet shutdown.

On Monday, the protesters announced that they would be suspending the protest until Wednesday. On Tuesday, they extended this suspension until Friday, but they were slated to meet on Thursday to discuss whether they would extend the pause further.

What are the protesters’ new demands?

  • PM Hasina must publicly apologise for the mass killings of students.
  • Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, and Law Minister Anisul Haque must resign from the cabinet and the party.
  • Police officers present at the sites where students were killed must be sacked.
  • Vice chancellors of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar and Rajshahi universities must resign.
  • The police and the BCL members who attacked the students and those who instigated the attacks must be arrested.
  • Families of the killed and injured must be compensated.
  • All party-affiliated student politics, including “terrorist organisation” BCL, should be banned and student councils should be established instead.
  • All educational institutions and halls of residence must be reopened.
  • Guarantees must be provided that no academic or administrative harassment of protesters will take place.
“Our 9-point demand has now become the demand of the masses. It is now the charter of freedom for the people of Bangladesh,” said a press release issued by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the protest organisers.

Garment factories open, news websites back online

On Wednesday, the curfew was relaxed for seven hours between 10am and 5pm. Banks, government offices and garment factories reopened.

Garment factories in Bangladesh, which employ millions of young women to make clothing items for some leading international brands, fuel the country’s economy. As of Tuesday, the country was estimated to have lost $1.2bn in revenue in less than a week, Al Jazeera’s Faisal Mahmud reported from Dhaka.

Major news websites such as the Daily Star and the Dhaka Tribune, which went offline when the country lost its internet, are online again.

However, the websites of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), police and the central bank, which appeared to be hacked, still seemed to be inaccessible. On the PMO’s website, earlier a message read, “Stop Killing Students”, followed by “It’s not a protest anymore. It’s a war now” in blood-red capital letters. The message was no longer visible, though.

Missing protesters returned

Three missing coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement – Asif Mahmud, Abu Bakr Majumdar, and Rifat Rashid, all students of Dhaka University – were found blindfolded on Wednesday, five days after they disappeared.

They confirmed their abduction and safe return through Facebook posts but did not provide details.

Another coordinator, Nahid Islam, was also abducted last Friday and released after 24 hours. Islam expressed concerns to Al Jazeera about the safety of students. “We are living in a precarious condition and don’t know when we will be abducted again,” he said.

Is the internet back in Bangladesh?

On Tuesday, fixed-line internet was partially restored after five days, according to watchdog NetBlocks.

While broadband internet is restored, mobile data is still unavailable in the country, protester Ayan*, 23, who is also an international relations major at Dhaka University, told Al Jazeera.

Mobile services are expected to be restored by July 29, according to Junaid Ahmed Palak, the telecommunications minister, who also confirmed that social media sites had been blocked.

Even the broadband connection is slow, Ayan added, saying he was using a VPN to access social media sites.

Are schools still closed?

Schools and other educational institutions remain closed until further notice.

The government may lift the curfew after Friday if the situation remains calm and allow educational institutions to reopen, reported Mahmud from Dhaka.

ALJAZEERA
 
Scorn as Bangladesh PM weeps at train station damage

Bangladesh's leader has been accused of crying "crocodile tears" after she was photographed weeping at a train station that was destroyed during anti-government protests.

At leat 150 people have been killed as a result of nationwide clashes between police and university students, with security forces accused of execessive force.

Protesters had been calling for quotas on government jobs to be scrapped.

Online, many accused Ms Hasina of not expressing the same level of sympathy towards those who had died, or their families.

The pictures were taken during Ms Hasina's visit to a metro rail station in the city of Mirpur on Thursday, where ticket vending machines and the signalling control station were shattered. Ms Hasina was pictured frowning and wiping her tears with tissue paper.

"What kind of mentality leads them to destroy facilities that make people's lives easier? Dhaka city was clogged with traffic. The metro rail offered respite. I cannot accept the destruction of this transport facility made with modern technology," Bangladeshi daily The Business Standard quoted the prime minister as saying.

These comments drew the ire of Bangladeshi internet users.

"We lost [hundreds of] students. But PM Sheikh Hasina had the time to go "cry" for a metro rail, not for the people who won't return ever again," said one Twitter user.

"Shedding crocodile tears for a railway track while others [have died]...." another chimed in.

Journalist Zulkarnian Saer, who has in the past spoken out against the government, said: "Hasina had the time to visit the vandalised train station, but she did not visit [the families] of the students... shot dead [during protests]."

Some called the photographs an attempt to drive attention away from deaths from the protests.

"No doubt that she went there to ... get some attention and empathy," said one Facebook user.

Security forces have been accused of using excessive force to quell the unrest, but Ms Hasina had instead blamed her political opponents for the wave of violence.

Her government is working to "suppress these militants and create a better environment", the 76-year-old said earlier this week, adding she was "forced" to impose a curfew for public safety.

The protests, mostly by university students, began about two weeks ago over quotas imposed on government jobs.

Bangladesh had earlier reserved about 30% of its high-paying government jobs for relatives of those who fought in the country's war for independence from Pakistan in 1971.

On Sunday, Bangladesh's top court rolled back most of these quotas and ruled that 93% of roles would now be filled on merit - meeting a key demand of protesters.

The wave of unrest is an unprecedented test for Ms Hasina, who secured her fourth straight term as prime minister in January, in a controversial election boycotted by the country's main opposition parties.

Political analysts told the BBC that Ms Hasina's authoritarian regime and "over-politicising" of Bangladesh's war for independence from Pakistan in 1971 have angered large sections of society.

Limited internet connectivity was restored on Tuesday after a nationwide blackout since last Thursday.

Some student leaders have vowed to continue protesting to demand justice for protesters killed and detained in recent days. They are also seeking the resignation of government ministers and an apology from Ms Hasina.

BBC
 

Bangladesh protest leaders taken from hospital by police​


Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Asif Mahmud, Nahid Islam and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing recent street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 193 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

The trio were being treated for injuries that they said were caused by torture in earlier police custody at a hospital in the capital Dhaka.

“They took them from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. “The men were from the Detective Branch.”

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders, but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam’s elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

 
How Bangladesh rickshaw pullers saved lives amid quota protest clashes

The air crackled with tension in Mouchak, a central district of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. It was Friday, July 19, and the streets were already filled with tens of thousands of protesters, their fury heightened by the deadly events of the previous day. A brutal police crackdown and clashes with activists of the governing Awami League party had claimed the lives of dozens of students, pushing the city to its limits.

The usual tranquility of the weekly Jummah prayer, a time for Muslim peaceful reflection, was hours away. Right then, the atmosphere was charged with unrest. Police, overwhelmed and outnumbered, retreated amid a barrage of stones, using tear gas and sound grenades in a desperate bid to maintain control amid mounting chaos.

A group of rickshaw pullers found themselves caught in the fray. A tear gas shell flew towards them, prompting a hasty retreat towards the nearby Malibagh Circle, a bustling avenue. Their retreat was accompanied by defiant voices raised in protest against the authorities: “If anything happens to us [rickshaw pullers], we will ignite fires in every house!”

Among them was Shaheen, originally from Cumilla district some 180km (112 miles) away.

“It was a horrifying scene,” he recounted, his voice trembling, the memory still vivid in his mind. “The police were firing at the protesters, who were retaliating by throwing stones. I managed to escape unharmed by pedalling my rickshaw as fast as possible to save my life.”

Yet, the rickshaw pullers didn’t just escape — they saved lives as Bangladesh descended into the bloodiest clashes it has seen in years. What had begun as a student-led protest for quota reforms in government jobs had erupted into a nationwide upheaval, fuelled by escalating violence and broader frustrations with the government. In a span of just five days, from July 16 to July 20, Bangladesh descended into turmoil. At least 197 people were killed amid widespread protests and a harsh crackdown by law enforcement forces.

Following the deaths of numerous protesters on July 18, tensions soared, prompting the government to take drastic measures: an internet shutdown that it blamed on “terrorist activities targeting data centres and ISP cables”, and after fresh clashes on July 19 in which at least 56 more people were killed, a nationwide curfew that it only began to relax this week.

Through it all, the city’s defiant rickshaw pullers were out on the streets.


www.aljazeera.com

How Bangladesh rickshaw pullers saved lives amid quota protest clashes

Risking bullets, they stepped out of their homes to save their livelihoods. They ended up saving lives too.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Bangladesh says student leaders held for their own safety

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

“They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them,” he said.

“That’s why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action.”

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide Internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

PROTESTS AND ARRESTS

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week’s unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

“We’ve carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

“We’re not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire.”

SOURCE: https://www.arabnews.com/node/2557491/world
 
Quite a few minor children were killed after being shot from helicopters or from open windows in their homes

In Dhaka police are raiding buildings, and students are being asked to show their cellphones
Any anti govt comments and they are detained. Some disappear, others are released after parents pay hefty ransom money

Police are also checking cellphones randomly in Streets of Dhaka.
 
Bangladesh students vow to resume protests unless leaders freed

A Bangladeshi student group has vowed to resume protests that sparked a lethal police crackdown and nationwide unrest unless several of its leaders are released from custody Sunday.

Last week's violence killed at least 205 people, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data, in one of the biggest upheavals of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year tenure.

Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place more than a week after they were imposed, and a police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters, including at least half a dozen student leaders.

Members of Students Against Discrimination, whose campaign against civil service job quotas precipitated the unrest, said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium.

The group's chief, Nahid Islam, and others "should be freed and the cases against them must be withdrawn," Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online briefing late Saturday.

Masud, who did not disclose his location because he was in hiding from authorities, also demanded "visible actions" be taken against government ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of protesters.

"Otherwise, Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests" from Monday, he said.

Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were on Friday forcibly discharged from hospital in the capital, Dhaka, and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

Earlier in the week Islam told AFP he was being treated at the hospital for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention and said he was in fear for his life.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters Friday that the trio were taken into custody for their own safety but did not confirm if they had been formally arrested.

Police told AFP on Sunday that detectives had taken two others into custody, while a Students Against Discrimination activist told AFP that a third had been taken on Sunday morning.

At least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began according to Prothom Alo, Bangladesh's largest daily newspaper.

While a curfew imposed last weekend remains in force, it has been progressively eased through the week, in a sign of the Hasina government's confidence that order was gradually being restored.

Telecommunications minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told reporters the country's mobile internet network would be restored later on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest.

Fixed line broadband connections had already been restored on Tuesday but the vast majority of Bangladesh's 141 million internet users rely on their mobile devices to connect with the world, according to the national telecoms regulator.



www.voanews.com

Bangladesh students vow to resume protests unless leaders freed

Police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters
www.voanews.com www.voanews.com
 

Bangladesh restores internet as students call off job-quota protests​


Bangladesh said it had restored internet services as conditions return to normal after students called off protests against reforms to job quotas that killed nearly 150 people this month.

The agitation, which began in universities and colleges last month, flared into nationwide protests that injured thousands as security forces cracked down, leading to curfew, army patrols on the streets and internet suspension to rein in the violence.

"The broadband and mobile internet connectivity has been restored with full functionality by now," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"Other forms of communications, including land-based and mobile telecommunications, were functional through the entire period of unrest and violence."

It added, "The government wishes to assure all international partners that the overall situation is turning back to normal, thanks to the timely and appropriate measures taken by the government and the people."

The United Nations, international rights groups, the U.S. and Britain were among critics of the use of force against protesters while asking Dhaka to uphold the right to peaceful protest.

Rights groups and critics say Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has grown more autocratic during 15 years in power, marked by mass arrests of political opponents and activists, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, charges she denies.

Protests led by students broke out in June when a high court ordered the restoration of quotas in government jobs, including reservations for families of veterans of the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and lobbed sound grenades to disperse tens of thousands who flooded the streets.

Students agreed to pause their agitation after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21, opening 93% of jobs to candidates selected on the basis of merit.

The "mostly peaceful and issue-specific students' movement" were not involved in violence, Hasina's government said, but blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which denied the assertion.

The students called off the protests, which had fallen off after the Supreme Court ruling.

"Our main demand for logical reforms to the government job quota system has been met," student co-ordinator Nahid Islam said in a video message on Sunday from police headquarters, calling for educational institutions to re-open.

He was among three protesters held by police while being treated in hospital, his younger brother told Reuters, in a step police said was aimed at ensuring security for protesters.

 

Shot in the eyes, victims of Bangladesh protest violence face dark future​


Within the sterile walls of the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH) in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, a sombre scene unfolds.

Dozens of young men, their faces etched with worry and uncertainty, sit in silent anticipation. Some shield their injured eyes behind dark sunglasses. Others wear white bandages on one or both eyes.

One question hangs in the air: Will these men ever see the world clearly again?

They are victims of pellet injuries — both survivors and reminders of the deadly clashes between protesters seeking job quota reforms and the security forces of Bangladesh that engulfed the nation of 170 million people for nearly two weeks this month.

Among them is Mohammad Anik, a 24-year-old salesperson from Madaripur – a central district some 150km (93 miles) away from Dhaka. “There is a less than 50 percent chance that he [Anik] will get his eyesight back,” said a duty doctor at NIOH who requested anonymity. “There were several injuries in his two eyes and we had tried our best.”

Last Monday, Anik was heading home from work when he got caught in a street clash between protesters and police. Before he could figure out what was happening, a pellet struck his face. He fell to the ground, unconscious and exposed, until bystanders intervened and took him to the hospital.

Now, he finds himself amid the dozens of young men at NIOH, their futures shrouded in darkness.

Hundreds of patients of pellet guns injury
The NIOH has treated nearly 500 patients in the last few days, hailing from various districts including Dhaka, all grappling with severe eye injuries. Hospital records reveal that at least 278 of these individuals also sustained wounds to other parts of their bodies.

Mohammad Shamim, a 10-year-old who worked at a motorcycle workshop, sustained pellet injuries to both eyes during a clash between police and protesters last Friday in the Mirpur area of the capital. Doctors have said he will never fully recover his vision. “My son’s future looks grim. What am I going to do with him?” lamented his father, Mohammad Idris.

NIOH’s director, Golam Mostafa, confirmed that shotgun pellets used during the anti-quota protests were the primary cause of the injuries.

“In cases where the pellet embeds itself in the retina’s centre or is forcefully ejected upon impact, partial blindness becomes the tragic outcome,” he said.

Researchers who looked at pellet injuries to protesters in Indian-administered Kashmir have previously found [PDF] that when fired at close range, the pellets lack sufficient time to disperse, resulting in a concentrated cluster that moves at incredibly high speeds. This concentrated force transforms the pellets into projectiles akin to handgun bullets, capable of piercing deep into soft tissues, particularly the eyes, causing extensive and irreversible damage.

The devastating impact of pellet guns on eyesight hinges on the velocity and distance at which the pellets are fired, the study explained. The severity of these injuries has prompted international condemnation, with Amnesty International calling for a ban on their use for crowd control in Indian-administered Kashmir a few years ago.

Violation of UN-issued guidance
The United Nations has warned against using metal pellets, like those expelled from shotguns, in law enforcement, arguing that they are inherently inaccurate and often violate the principles of necessity and proportionality.

Bangladeshi police and security forces however have resorted to using 12-gauge pump-action shotguns loaded with cartridges containing these very metal pellets, a number of security analysts told Al Jazeera after analysing several photos and footage.

Al Jazeera telephoned and sent text messages to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and several top officials from the police forces but received no response. Salim Mahmud, secretary of information and research of the ruling Awami League party, told Al Jazeera that he had to “check with the police and paramilitary forces” whether “any lethal weapon” was used against the protesters.

Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Watch has accused Bangladesh’s security forces of using excessive force during the protests. Their findings reveal the use of live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets to disperse demonstrators. Amnesty International has also raised similar concerns.

Those who sustained eye injuries during the recent anti-quota protests, along with their families, claim that the police used indiscriminate force, firing at them without restraint.

Rakibul Ahsan from the southern district of Barisal was part of the protests. A fourth-year statistics student at BM College, Ahsan was on the streets with his classmates last Tuesday when he was shot in both eyes. Doctors have not assured him of a full recovery. “We were protesting for a legitimate cause and were shot at for it. There is no justice here,” Ahsan lamented.

Sumon Mia, a mason from Madaripur who shared a hospital ward with salesman Anik, was also struck by a pellet in his right eye. But unlike Ahsan, and like Anik, he was not involved in the agitation against the government — he was simply heading home from work. Despite a surgery, doctors couldn’t save that eye — his vision is lost.

“My brother wasn’t involved in any protests. Why was he shot? Who will be held accountable for this?” his sister, Lipi Akter, asked.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
 
These couple of days had been the worst for my country and my people. I hope my country finds peace. Man I was never as scared for my life going back home from office in Dhaka on 18th July. I hope I never see a day like that again
 
Bangladesh restores internet as students call off job-quota protests

Bangladesh said it had restored internet services as conditions return to normal after students called off protests against reforms to job quotas that killed nearly 150 people this month.

The agitation, which began in universities and colleges last month, flared into nationwide protests that injured thousands as security forces cracked down, leading to curfew, army patrols on the streets and internet suspension to rein in the violence.

"The broadband and mobile internet connectivity has been restored with full functionality by now," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

"Other forms of communications, including land-based and mobile telecommunications, were functional through the entire period of unrest and violence."

It added, "The government wishes to assure all international partners that the overall situation is turning back to normal, thanks to the timely and appropriate measures taken by the government and the people."

The U.S. State Department on Monday called for "a full and undisrupted public access to internet and social media services."

The United Nations, international rights groups, the U.S. and Britain were among critics of the use of force against protesters while asking Dhaka to uphold the right to peaceful protest.

Rights groups and critics say Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has grown more autocratic during 15 years in power, marked by mass arrests of political opponents and activists, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, charges she denies.

Protests led by students broke out in June when a high court ordered the restoration of quotas in government jobs, including reservations for families of veterans of the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and lobbed sound grenades to disperse tens of thousands who flooded the streets.

Students agreed to pause their agitation after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21, opening 93% of jobs to candidates selected on the basis of merit.

The "mostly peaceful and issue-specific students' movement" was not involved in violence, Hasina's government said, but blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which denied the assertion.

The students called off the protests, which had fallen off after the Supreme Court ruling.

"Our main demand for logical reforms to the government job quota system has been met," student co-ordinator Nahid Islam said in a video message on Sunday from police headquarters, calling for educational institutions to re-open.

He was among three protesters held by police while being treated in hospital, his younger brother told Reuters, in a step police said was aimed at ensuring security for protesters.

REUTERS
 
Conditions are not normal, though government trying to claim it is

Curfew after 6pm

Govt arresting thousands, by checking mobile phones. Any anti government material and person is arrested
Every night homes are raided in a particular area after internet is cut off

Many people disappeared after taken by plain clothes (na maloom afrad)

Tens of thousands injured, many people without eyesight

Government minister boasted police have enough ammunition to shoot people for 5 years straight. Also said government had ability to finish it all in 30 minutes

Government filed cases against 200,000 people in Dhaka alone

A dozen kids killed by police, many shot when they were in their homes
 
This riots has nothing to do with reservation policy of Bangladesh, it’s a leftists trying to topple Bangladesh government in the name of reservation policy.

After lefties failing to capture power in India, the lefties gain power in UK and they reversed migrant’s policy overnight. In France no party got majority, but leftist is a larger party.
 
globetrotter said:
This riots has nothing to do with reservation policy of Bangladesh, it’s a leftists trying to topple Bangladesh government in the name of reservation policy.

After lefties failing to capture power in India, the lefties gain power in UK and they reversed migrant’s policy overnight. In France no party got majority, but leftist is a larger party.
Click to expand...

Hasina herself is a leftist. Hasina's government is a leftist government. They are in power illegally for 10-15 years (rigged elections).

Right-wing in Bangladesh is BNP/Jamat-e-Islami.
 
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S&P Cuts Bangladesh Ratings After Curfew, Protests Slow Economy​


(Bloomberg) -- S&P Global Ratings lowered Bangladesh’s credit ratings to B+ from BB- due to a sustained decline in its foreign exchange reserves, nearly two weeks after the government imposed a curfew to quell deadly student protests.

The downgrade reflects a “persistent pressure on Bangladesh’s external metrics, marked in particular by a continued decline in foreign exchange reserves,” S&P said in a statement Tuesday. It kept the outlook stable as Bangladesh’s per capita real growth remains strong despite the “near-term headwinds.”

Bangladesh’s reserves stood at $21.78 billion at end-June, enough to cover three months of imports. It is likely to come under further pressure as the curfew shuttered key parts of the economy, including the garments export sector that brings in much-needed dollars.

The curfew remains in place with longer breaks while more businesses have started to reopen.

The developments suggest that the negotiations between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government, creditors and the International Monetary Fund for more money will take a renewed urgency. An industry body has said the curfews and internet shutdowns are estimated to have a $10 billion impact on the economy and the costs could go higher.

S&P said government measures to introduce some flexibility in the currency market with a crawling-peg exchange rate and a tighter monetary policy could help stem the sharp decline in foreign reserves though “progress will likely be gradual.”

Fitch downgraded Bangladesh’s credit rating in late May, saying the sustained weakening of Bangladesh’s external buffers may prove difficult to reverse respite policy reforms.
Click to expand...

Reference: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/investi...h-ratings-after-curfew-protests-slow-economy/.
 
Bangladesh to ban fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami for exploiting student protests

The Bangladesh government on Tuesday decided to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami following the deadly nationwide students’ protests over quotas in government jobs, accusing the fundamentalist party of exploiting the movement that left at least 150 people dead.

The development to ban the Jamaat-e-Islami from Wednesday comes a day after a meeting of the ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led 14-party alliance passed a resolution that Jamaat, an ally of former prime minister Khaleda Zia Bangladesh National Party (BNP), must be banned from politics.

“God willing . . . the decision (of banning Jamaat) will be announced tomorrow,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told newspersons at his office on Tuesday, adding it would be an “executive order” that will ban the Jamaat-e-Islami, a party founded in 1941 in undivided India under British rule.

The students, who waged protests during the anti-quota movement, said they had no link to the violence while evidence was there that Jamaat, its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP), and militant party of its students front, Chhatra Dal, carried out the mayhem, the minister claimed.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League’s (AL) general secretary Obaidul Quader, meanwhile, said the government would thoroughly examine legal aspects before banning Jamaat-Shibir to block any possible legal loophole, which could be exploited by “this extremist group” to engage in politics in Bangladesh.

For the sake of the country, the 14-party alliance has decided to ban Jamaat-Shibir to eliminate anti-national evil forces, Quader said.

Quader, also the Road Transport Minister, said that Jamaat and BNP used students as “shields” during the movement while “the government is aware of the sources of their instructions, incitements, and funding.”

Violence gripped Bangladesh for almost the entire of July when the protests that had started in universities and colleges earlier this month, quickly turned into a widespread agitation against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government’s policies. The government called in the army to quell protests against job quotas after the unrest left at least 150 dead and several thousand people, including policemen, wounded and major government installations damaged.

Meanwhile, the ruling Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led 14-party alliance leaders held a meeting with Hasina in the chair and passed a resolution that the Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh’s 1971 independence siding with the then Pakistani junta, must be banned from politics.

Political sources familiar with the meeting said Hasina told the meeting that there were intelligence reports that the Jamaat-Shibir clique carried out the arson attacks and damaged the government installations in the capital mobilising their “trained people” from different parts of Bangladesh.

In 2018, complying with a High Court verdict, the Election Commission scrapped Jamaat’s registration disqualifying the party, a key partner in the past BNP-led four-party alliance government from 2001-2006 tenure from contesting polls.

The Bangladesh High Court, in a landmark verdict on August 1, 2013, had declared Jamaat's registration with the Election Commission illegal. Jamaat then appealed to the appellate division and finally lost its registration in 2018.

Bangladesh, in 2009, initiated a process to try the key collaborators of Pakistani troops in 1971 on charges of crimes against humanity and six top leaders of Jamaat and one of BNP were hanged after their trial in two special war crimes tribunals while the apex Appellate Division of the Supreme Court upheld the judgments.

SOURCE: https://www.hindustantimes.com/worl...loiting-student-protests-101722394284423.html
 
Fresh violence in Bangladesh student protests

Fresh violence has broken out in Bangladesh between police and student protesters demanding justice for victims of recent unrest.

An official in the north-eastern city of Sylhet said demonstrators had attacked police, forcing them to resort to tear gas on Wednesday. Clashes were also reported in the capital Dhaka and other cities.

More than 200 people have been killed in this month's violence, mostly as a result of police opening fire. Nearly 10,000 people have reportedly been detained.

Photos sent from the southern city of Barisal to BBC Bangla show police in riot gear and wielding batons, barricading demonstrations and taking away protesters, many of whom are women.

Wednesday's "March for Justice" was called by the Students Against Discrimination movement.

They said they were demonstrating against "mass killings, arrests, attacks, and disappearances of students and people".

Students have been protesting against attempts to reinstate quotas in civil service jobs for relatives of veterans from the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971 for more than three weeks.

A third of public sector jobs had been set aside for them, but on 21 July the Supreme Court ruled just 5% of the roles could be reserved.

The student movement believes the system is discriminatory and has demanded recruitment based on merit.
Organisers have demanded an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and for six ministers to resign over deadly clashes at the resulting protests.

The government blames the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami party for the unrest.

The European Union has postponed talks with Bangladesh on a new co-operation agreement after criticism of the government's crackdown.

On Tuesday, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned what he called the use of excessive force against protesters and asked for those responsible to be brought to justice.

The now postponed co-operation deal had been intended to boost economic links between Bangladesh and the EU, the country's main trading partner.


www.bbc.com

Fresh violence in Bangladesh student protests

More than 200 people have been killed in recent weeks after a crackdown on demonstrations.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Bangladesh Police Release Student Leaders After Unrest

Bangladesh police freed six student leaders on Thursday whose campaign against civil service job quotas sparked deadly nationwide unrest, as the government looked to calm tensions and forestall fresh demonstrations.

Students Against Discrimination staged nationwide rallies last month that ended in a police crackdown and the deaths of at least 206 people, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

The group's leadership were among thousands picked up in the police dragnet that followed some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year tenure.

"All six quota movement coordinators have been returned to their families this afternoon," deputy commissioner Junaed Alam Sarkar said.

Principal leader Nahid Islam and two others were forcibly discharged from a hospital in the capital Dhaka last Friday by plainclothes detectives and taken to an unknown location.

His father Badrul Islam confirmed to AFP that Nahid Islam had returned home early Thursday afternoon but did not give any more details.

Three others were detained in the following days, with the government saying they had been held for their own safety.

Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP on Thursday that all six had volunteered to be in police custody.

"They came willingly. They said they wanted to go. They are allowed to return to their parents," he said.

Hasina's government restored order after deploying troops, imposing a curfew and shutting down the mobile internet network across the country of 170 million for 11 days.

More than 10,000 people were arrested in the wake of the unrest, according to Bangladeshi media.

- 'Arbitrary and unlawful' -

Small and scattered protests resumed in cities around Bangladesh this week after other members of Students Against Discrimination ended a moratorium on demonstrations.

They vowed to restart their campaign after the government ignored a Monday deadline for their leaders to be freed.

"Their detention was arbitrary and unlawful. There was growing national and international criticism," University of Oslo researcher Mubashar Hasan told AFP.

He said the release of the student leaders signalled the government was looking to "de-escalate tensions" with the protest movement.

Demonstrations broke out last month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme -- since scaled back by Bangladesh's top court -- that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.

Critics say the quota system was used to stack public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League.

- 'Excessive and lethal force' -

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 the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Ministers accused opposition parties of stirring up unrest, which saw arson and vandalism attacks by crowds against government buildings and dozens of police posts.

The government enacted a ban on Thursday on Jamaat-e-Islaami, Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, that outlawed the organisation and prohibited it from staging any public gatherings.

The protests last month had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week condemned the police clampdown that followed for "excessive and lethal force against protesters and others".

A human rights law firm wrote to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Thursday on behalf of Australia's Bangladeshi diaspora seeking a preliminary examination into the violence.

"There is no evidence that the Bangladeshi Government will properly investigate the situation itself in an independent or thorough manner," the brief said.

Any person or group can make a request to the ICC but it is not obliged to take up a case.

AFP
 
Dozens of children killed in Bangladesh protests – Unicef

At least 32 children have died during student protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the UN's children's agency has said.

The youngest child killed had yet to turn five years old, a Unicef spokesperson said, adding that most of those who died were bystanders.

They were among more than 200 people who were killed during demonstrations against job quotas in the civil service, according to figures verified by BBC Bangla.

The quota system has now been scaled back by the government following a Supreme Court ruling, but students have continued protesting - now demanding justice for those who died or have been injured or detained.

While the protests are now smaller in scale, the government is struggling to control the rising tide of anger over how it initially responded to the demonstrations.

"Why are our brothers in graves and the killers outside?" asked a crowd which had gathered outside the largest mosque in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, following Friday prayers, according to the AFP news agency.

Security forces responded to the thousands who filled the streets with tear gas and rubber bullets, according to Reuters news agency. It reported that at least 20 people were injured.

Sanjay Wijesekera, Unicef's regional director for south Asia, said he had been made aware of reports of children being detained during a visit to Bangladesh this week.

He added that the 32 deaths the organisation had confirmed were "a terrible loss".

A spokesperson for the UN agency said most of those killed were aged 13 or older, with one under five and one child aged between six and 12.

"Children must be protected at all times," Mr Wijesekera said. "That is everyone’s responsibility."

Bangladeshi junior Information Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat responded that the government had no information regarding Unicef's death toll.

"We don’t know where they [Unicef] got the numbers from," he told the BBC, adding: "Our position is clear: Whoever has been killed, we are going to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book."

Security forces have been accused of using excessive force to quell the initial protests, with many of the dead and injured suffering gunshot wounds, according to doctors who spoke to the BBC.

But the government - which has said a number of police officers were also killed - has blamed political opponents for the unrest.

On Thursday, it banned the country's main Islamist party - Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir - which it claimed was behind some of the violence.

"We have evidence that they have participated in the killings and in the destruction of government and private properties," Anisul Huq, Bagladesh's law minister, told the BBC.

The opposition party's leader described the move as "illegal, extrajudicial and unconstitutional".

Leaders of the student protest were also detained for a week - something done for their own protection, officials claimed. However, their release on Thursday has done little to dampen the outrage.

In a joint statement released on Friday, the students questioned the grounds on which they were held.

The group alleged "harassment, torture and drama" towards them and their families during their seven days of detention.

"No one is safe in the custody of those who kill unarmed students and citizens," the statement said, as it urged people to continue taking to the streets.

Nearly 10,000 people have reportedly been detained since the authorities began their crackdown on the protests.

But Mr Arafat rebuffed the statement by the student leaders.

He said the authorities had to take the student leaders into custody because the government was aware of a potential threat to their lives.

"Their protection became our top priority," he added.

BBC
 

Bangladesh students call for nationwide civil disobedience​


Student leaders rallied Bangladeshis on Saturday for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government weathered a worsening backlash over a deadly police crackdown on protesters.

Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem last month that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.

Troop deployments briefly restored order but crowds hit the streets in huge numbers after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority nation, heeding a call by student leaders to press the government for more concessions.

Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the initial protests, urged their compatriots to launch an all-out non-cooperation movement from Sunday.

“This includes non-payment of taxes and utility bills, strikes by government workers and a halt to overseas remittance payments through banks,” the group’s Asif Mahmud told AFP.

Mahmud’s fellow student leaders also said another round of nationwide rallies would be staged on Saturday.

“Please don’t stay at home. Join your nearest protest march,” Mahmud wrote on Facebook.

Students are demanding a public apology from Hasina for last month’s violence and the dismissal of several of her ministers.

They have also insisted that the government reopens schools and universities around the country, all of which were shuttered at the height of the unrest.

Crowds on the street have gone further, chanting demands for Hasina to leave office.

Hasina, 76, 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 the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota scheme — since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court — that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.

The protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.

Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile Internet network for 11 days to restore order.

Foreign governments condemned the clampdown, with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week calling for an international probe into the “excessive and lethal force against protesters.”

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters last weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings.

At least 32 children were among those killed last month, the UN said Friday.

www.arabnews.pk

Bangladesh students call for nationwide civil disobedience

DHAKA: Student leaders rallied Bangladeshis on Saturday for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government weathered a worsening backlash over a deadly police crackdown on protesters. Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem last...
www.arabnews.pk www.arabnews.pk
 
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