Deaths, protests continue despite curfew in Bangladesh

Anti-government protesters defied a government curfew in parts of Bangladesh on Saturday as soldiers patrolled the streets in a bid to end deadly unrest that has rocked the country for a week. 

While Dhaka was largely empty – its streets strewn with felled trees, damaged vehicles and rolls of barbed wire – BenarNews reporters witnessed violent clashes between demonstrators and law enforcers in four areas of the city.

“We don’t care about curfew. Unless the government resigns, we’ll continue our protest,” Arafat Hossein, a student protester in the Jatrabari neighborhood of Dhaka, told BenarNews.

At least 25 more people were killed on Saturday, most of them in Dhaka, according to a count by BenarNews based on phone calls to area hospitals. Two of the dead were police officers. That brings the death toll from civil unrest since Tuesday to 124. The nephew of Shahida Begum, a 28-year-old Dhaka resident, was among the victims.

“My nephew was so innocent. He doesn’t know much. He is such a kid! They killed him despite being innocent. I want justice. Why did they kill my nephew? He didn’t do anything. He is just a college student,” she told a reporter for Agence France-Presse.

Bangladesh’s government imposed a nationwide curfew and announced it was deploying the army late Friday, a day on which 67 people died in the streets, according to a BenarNews count. 

That evening, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League said troops would be operating with a “shoot on sight” order. 

However, BenarNews reporters observed members of the military acting with restraint on Saturday, and the Dhaka Metropolitan Police announced that curfew violators could face a year in prison. 

Officials said the curfew would remain in effect until at least 10:00 am Sunday. Also Sunday, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court was to rule on unpopular job quotas reinstated last month by a lower court – the root cause of the student protest movement that began in early July. 

The quotas reserve 30% of civil service jobs for descendants of those who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war. But critics say the quota benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

The protests took on a different tone after Hasina on July 14 equated those who want to end job quotas with Pakistan army collaborators during the war. As angry students openly criticized Hasina in the streets, the protests devolved into clashes with pro-government groups and law enforcement. 

On Saturday, as a state-imposed Internet shutdown entered its third day, banks in Bangladesh sent mobile text messages apologizing to customers who could not access their accounts, refill mobile phone plans or pay online bills. 

On X (Twitter), NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet connectivity and democracy, noted that Bangladesh has now been offline for over 48 hours. “The blackout continues to hinder human rights observers and independent media at a critical time,” it said.

Major Bangladeshi news portals such as Prothom Alo, New Age, bdnews24 and BSS, the state news agency, are not loading or have not been updated. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters Saturday that some international media were spreading “untrue” information about the protests.

Abdul Mannan, a rickshaw puller in Mirpur, Dhaka, said the unrest had upended his livelihood.

“Last four days, I didn’t work. We are people who earn and spend every day, we don’t have any savings. Now we cannot return home at the end of the day with food. This situation must stop,” he told BenarNews.

Firoz Alam, a Mirpur resident, observed that the anti-quota movement had turned into an anti-government movement.

“So many deaths in one movement is really painful. But the most alarming thing is, even after imposing a curfew, peace did not return to Dhaka,” he said.