Bangladeshi authorities have arrested more than 2,500 people in recent days during protests against quotas for civil service recruitment that have turned violent, according to a new tally by AFP on Tuesday.
At least 174 people, including several police officers, died during the unrest, according to another AFP count based on victims counted by police and hospitals.
Student protests against quotas for civil service recruitment, which favour groups seen as close to the ruling Awami League party, have led to the worst wave of violence since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina came to power 15 years ago.
Authorities initially imposed a curfew, deployed soldiers across the South Asian country and shut down the internet nationwide for five days, drastically reducing information flow and disrupting the daily lives of many people.
The internet was gradually restored on Tuesday evening, as promised shortly before by the Minister of Telecommunications, Junaid Ahmed Palak, but the mobile network, widely used by the demonstrators, remained cut off.
In addition, the authorities announced an easing of the curfew, to allow residents to stock up on basic necessities, and the reopening of banks.
Protests suspended
The student movement behind the protests extended its suspension of the protests by 48 hours on Tuesday.
For the next 48 hours, “we will not hold any protests, but we demand that the government restore the internet, lift the curfew, reopen campuses and protect protesting students,” including “the return” of four of its missing leaders, Nahid Islam, the head of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organizing the protests, told AFP.
From his hospital room, he said on Monday that he feared for his life after being kidnapped and beaten.
A heavy military presence was visible in the country’s capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday, with roadblocks at some intersections and on major roads.
But there were more people in the streets, which were crisscrossed by hundreds of rickshaws.
“I didn’t drive a rickshaw in the first days of the curfew, but today I had no choice,” Hanif, a driver of the popular vehicles, told AFP. “If I don’t, my family will go hungry.”
“Killed at random”
More than 1,200 people have been arrested in Dhaka and its rural outskirts, police officials told AFP.
Nearly 600 people have been arrested in and around the port city of Chittagong, and hundreds more have been arrested in several districts across the country, local police officials said. The latest figures bring the total number of arrests recorded by AFP to 2,580.
The authorities’ response to the protests has been widely criticised.
In a statement Monday, Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus urged “international leaders and the United Nations to do everything in their power to end the violence.”
Muhammad Yunus, 83, is known for lifting millions of people out of poverty through his pioneering microfinance bank.
“Every day, young people are being killed randomly,” Yunus told AFP.
Diplomats in the capital have also criticised the government’s crackdown, with the government repeatedly blaming protesters and the opposition for the unrest, diplomatic sources said on condition of anonymity.
Fewer quota jobs
With around 18 million young people out of work, according to official figures, the reintroduction of the quota system in the civil service in June has sparked anger among graduates.
The Supreme Court on Sunday reduced the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent to 7 percent of all posts, mainly for children and grandchildren of fighters in the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, but did not abolish the system, as protesters have demanded.
The decision falls short of protesters’ demands to completely abolish the category of “freedom fighters.”
Prime Minister Hasina’s spokesman told AFP on Monday evening that she had approved a government order implementing the Supreme Court ruling.
Sheikh Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January in a vote without any real opposition.
The violence of recent days has raised questions about her future, but she told business leaders on Monday that she was determined to stay in power, saying: “Sheikh Hasina never runs away.”