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A new group of protesters gathered at the Prime Minister of Bangladesh office calling on the Minister, Sheikh Hasina to restore internet in the country.
Internet blackout has been experienced in the Asian country since last week when thousands of students blocked major roads in the country most especially at the capital city of Dhaka seeking an end to jobs quota system.
As at on Tuesday local time, it was observed that the country’s army are still on the streets and internet was yet to be restored.
The new group of protesters, Industry Leaders who top business owners demanded that the Prime Minister, Hasina on Monday to withdraw the curfew and restore internet service, which has been down for days as part of a complete communications blackout.
The group pleaded with her to have the army provide security for the Dhaka-Chattogram highway — the economic lifeline that connects the capital to the country’s main port city — amid fears of vandalism.”
It would be recalled that violence in Bangladesh left estimated 146 dead as students demand reforms to a quota system governing the allocation of government jobs in the country.
Some residents said that the protests intensified following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s remarks, where she allegedly said and labelled the protesters as “Razakars”.
This term, according to observers, it’s historically loaded and carrying a negative connotation, harks back to the East Pakistani volunteer force that opposed the creation of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation during its 1971 War of Independence.
Bangladesh’s Supreme Court amid the protest ruled and abolished the majority of quotas for government jobs.
Previously, one-third of public sector positions were reserved for the relatives of veterans from the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. The apex court has now reduced this reservation to just 5%.
Law Minister, Anisul Huq announced that the government would comply with the court’s ruling within days. Despite this decision, some student leaders pledged to continue their protests, demanding further reforms.
Amid the protests, the government expanded a crackdown on opposition parties, with at least 70 arrests reportedly made among the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The jobs quota system, which had earlier been set aside by the government but was revived by a court last month, would have given 30 percent of government jobs to relatives of those that fought in the war that won independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Once scaled back, as ruled by the Supreme Court, 93 percent of public sector jobs will be dedicated to merit-based recruits, with 5 percent earmarked for veterans’ family members. A further 2 percent will be reserved for people from ethnic minorities or with disabilities.
AlJazeera reported that the protesters in Bangladesh have issued demands amid a lull in the violence that has filled the streets in recent days after the government backed down on quotas on hiring for government jobs.
Student leaders said on Monday that they plan to continue demonstrations despite a decision by the Supreme Court the previous day scaling back the controversial job quota system that sparked the protests.
The demonstrators have demanded that the government release protest leaders, lift the military curfew, and reopen the universities, which have been shut since Wednesday last week. They said they would give the government 48 hours to meet the demands.
It was observed that alot of protesters were attacked by security forces, as well as other students who back the ruling Awami League party, last week as they launched their call against the quota system, which sought to reserve sought-after government jobs for relatives of war veterans and other groups.
Although the court has largely annulled the quotas, the protesters have demanded accountability for the crackdown, including the resignation of ministers.
They have also called for swift formalisation of the ruling. Law Minister, Anisul Huq had said on Sunday that the government would implement the changes to the legislation within days.
The military curfew that was implemented during the protests was relaxed for several hours on Monday to allow people to buy essentials. However, internet connections remained severed for a fifth straight day in the nation of 170 million people, according to the country last population census.
After the renewed call for a nationwide shutdown on Monday by the students’ protesters, soldiers continued to roam the streets and tanks were seen stationed across the streets of the capital Dhaka.
No more fatalities or large-scale gatherings had been reported by the late afternoon as a tentative calm persisted, to according to AlJazeera reporter.
It was estimated that about 32 people were on Thursday killed in a single day during the protest, with the toll expected to rise further after reports of clashes in nearly half of the country’s 64 districts.
Videos posted online saw security operatives shooting directly at the protesters.
Killing of protesters were also observed in August 2018 when group of students protested over safety of roads in the nation’s capital, Dhaka.
A police statement issued after a near-total shutdown of the nation’s internet said protesters had torched, vandalised and carried out “destructive activities” on numerous police and government offices, according to AFP.
Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster; Bangladesh Television, which went offline after hundreds of incensed students stormed the premises and set fire to a building.
“About 100 policemen were injured in the clashes on Thursday,” Faruk Hossain, a spokesman for the capital’s police force, told AFP. “Around 50 police booths were burnt”.
The police statement had said that if the destruction continued, they would “be forced to make maximum use of law”.
Police fire was the cause of at least two-thirds of deaths reported so far, based on descriptions given to AFP by hospital staff.
“At least 26 districts around the country reported clashes on Thursday, broadcaster Independent Television reported.
The network said more than 700 had been wounded through the day including 104 police officers and 30 journalists.
Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Her administration this week ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police step up efforts to bring the deteriorating law and order situation under control.
Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladesh expert at the University of Oslo in Norway, told AFP Thursday that the protests had grown into a wider expression of discontent with Hasina’s autocratic rule.
“They are protesting against the repressive nature of the state,” he told AFP. “The students are in fact calling her a dictator.”
Students have vowed to continue their campaign despite Hasina giving a national address on the now-offline state broadcaster seeking to calm the situation.
“Our first demand is that the prime minister must apologise to us,” protester Bidisha Rimjhim, 18, told AFP on Thursday.
“Secondly, justice must be ensured for our killed brothers,” she added.
London-based watchdog Netblocks said Friday that a “nation-scale” internet shutdown remained in effect.
“The disruption prevents families from contacting each other and stifles efforts to document human rights violations,” it wrote in a social media post on X”, AFP stated in quote.
