More than 500 people arrested in capital after violence

Several members of the opposition Bangladesh National Party have been arrested by police.

Opposition leaders, students arrested by police… “HASAt least 532 people have been arrested following the violence”the spokesman for the police in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, told AFP on Monday, July 22. “Among them are BNP leaders“, the Bangladesh National Party, an opposition party, he added. For three weeks, the country has been in the grip of violent, almost daily protests, which have left at least 163 people dead.

“We are suspending the demonstrations for 48 hours”Nahid Islam, leader of the main movement organizing the protests, Students Against Discrimination, told AFP, asking the government “to lift the curfew during this period, to restore access to the internet and to stop targeting student protesters.”

A reform of hiring quotas in the civil service triggered this protest. In June, the government wanted to reintroduce a quota system for access to civil service positions, and reserve a third of jobs for the descendants of those who fought for the country’s independence in 1971.

As a result, the government imposed a 24-hour curfew on July 19 and deployed the military to maintain order, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s office told AFP. That same day, thousands of people stormed a prison, freeing more than 800 inmates before setting fire to part of the facility.