Top opposition leader arrested after deadly protests

Bangladeshis woke up Friday, July 19, without internet connection, to find government buildings burned the day before, amid deadly clashes between police and students. The death toll has reached 50, according to an AFP tally based on figures from hospitals across the country.

As the week progressed, protests that began in early July to demand an end to the civil service quota system have degenerated into increasingly violent clashes, with clashes taking place in nearly half of Bangladesh’s 64 districts.

“Unbelievers have already set fire to, vandalized and carried out destructive activities” against police and government buildings, police wrote in a statement released Thursday evening after a power outage “almost total” Internet access across the country. Among these buildings is that of state television BTV in the capital Dhaka, which was stormed by hundreds of students and set on fire.

Bangladesh police arrested a top opposition leader in Dhaka on Friday, a police spokesman said. Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, a senior leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is facing charges “hundreds of cases”said the police spokesman, without giving further details on the reasons for his arrest.

Bangladeshi authorities on Friday banned any further protests in the capital. “To ensure public safety”the police then “bans all gatherings, processions and public meetings in Dhaka” Friday, the city’s police chief said.