Death toll in protests in Bangladesh rises to nearly 180, more than 2,500 people arrested after days of unrest

Dhaka — The number of arrests in days from Violence in Bangladesh The death toll passed 2,500 on Tuesday after protests over job quotas sparked widespread unrest. At least 174 people have died, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP tally of casualties reported by police and hospitals.

What began as a demonstration against politicized admission quotas for coveted government jobs escalated last week into the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s term in office. A curfew was imposed in the South Asian country and soldiers were deployed. A nationwide internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information and turned the everyday lives of many people upside down.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court the number of reserved workplaces reduced for certain groups, including the descendants of the “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s liberation war against Pakistan in 1971.

The student group leading the demonstrations suspended their protests for 48 hours on Monday. Their leader said they did not want reforms “at the cost of so much blood.”

The restrictions remained in place on Tuesday after the army chief said the situation had been brought “under control.”

There was a heavy military presence in Dhaka, with bunkers set up at some intersections and major roads cordoned off with barbed wire. But there were more people on the streets, as well as hundreds of rickshaws.

“I didn’t drive a rickshaw during the first days of the curfew, but today I had no choice,” rickshaw driver Hanif told AFP. “If I don’t, my family will go hungry.”

The head of Students Against Discrimination, the main organisation organising the protests, told AFP from his hospital room on Monday that he feared for his life after being kidnapped and mistreated. The group said on Tuesday that at least four of its leaders were missing and called on authorities to “return” them by the evening.

The authorities’ response to the protests was widely criticized. Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus called in a statement on “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything in their power to end the violence.”

The respected 83-year-old economist is credited with lifting millions of people out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank, but in doing so he also incurred the hatred of Hasina, who accused him of “sucking the blood” of the poor.

“Young people are being killed indiscriminately every day,” Yunus told AFP. “Hospitals do not disclose the number of injured and dead.”

Diplomats in Dhaka also questioned the government’s actions. US Ambassador Peter Haas told the foreign minister that he had shown a one-sided video to diplomats at a press conference.

Government officials have repeatedly blamed protesters and the opposition for the unrest.

More than 1,200 of those arrested in the violence – nearly half of the total 2,580 – were detained in Dhaka and the region’s rural and industrial areas, police officials told AFP.

Nearly 600 people were arrested in Chittagong and surrounding rural areas, and hundreds more were arrested in several districts across the country.

According to government figures, around 18 million young people are unemployed in Bangladesh. The reintroduction of the quota system in June – which had been suspended since 2018 – is a major disappointment for university graduates. They are facing an acute employment crisis.

Amid growing protests across the country, the Supreme Court on Sunday cut the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, mainly for the children and grandchildren of the “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

Although 93 percent of jobs are awarded based on merit, the decision fell short of the protesters’ demands to abolish the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

Late Monday, Hasina’s spokesman told AFP that the prime minister had approved a government order giving effect to the Supreme Court ruling.

Critics claim the quota is being used to fill public positions with supporters of Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote with no real opposition.

Human rights groups also accuse the government of abusing state institutions to consolidate its power and suppress dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.