Students threaten to resume protests

Situation remains tense in Bangladesh. A group of students threatened on Sunday, July 28, to resume demonstrations on Monday, after several days of deadly unrest, if its imprisoned leaders were not released.. “The proceedings brought against them [doivent être] abandoned”, Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters at an online news conference Saturday evening, not revealing where he was speaking from as he is hiding from authorities.

For their part, the authorities gave the first official toll of the deadly repression after restoring mobile internet, after more than a week of blocking. The Bangladeshi interior minister said that 147 people had been killed, while Students Against Discrimination, the organization behind the protests, counted 266 victims, in this protest that began after the reintroduction in June of a system reserving more than half of civil service jobs for certain candidates.

Bangladesh police showed restraint but were “forced to open fire” on protesters in an attempt to protect government buildings. “Despite the murder of their colleagues,” the police men “have shown extreme patience”, Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on Sunday. “But when they saw that the buildings could not be protected, the police were forced to open fire.”he added.

Police have arrested thousands of protesters, including several student leaders, after protests against public sector hiring quotas. According to Prothom AloBangladesh’s largest daily, said at least 9,000 people have been arrested across the country since the unrest began. The curfew remained in place Sunday, but was gradually eased over the week, a sign that the government believes order has largely been restored.