Curfew in Bangladesh, with shooting orders, after protests leave 133 dead

A strict curfew with shoot-at-all orders and a communications and media blackout have been imposed across Bangladesh as the country racks up more victims in violent student protests against public employment quotas, which have already left more than 100 dead in five days.

Riot police fired live ammunition at protesters on Saturday, July 20 in Bangladesh, where the army is patrolling cities following a wave of deadly clashes that have left more than 100 dead this week.

This South Asian country is shaken by a mobilization that began in early July with Student protests against a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service positions for certain sectors of society, including children of veterans of the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

The demonstrations led to a broader mobilization and riots, which this week left At least 133 deadaccording to an AFP report based on data from police and hospital sources.

The movement poses a challenge to the autocratic rule of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been in power for 15 years.

Hasina had “cancelled her tour of Spain and Brazil due to the current situation,” her press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan told AFP on Saturday. The prime minister was scheduled to travel to Spain on Sunday and then leave for Brazil on Tuesday.

In the capital Dhaka, a megalopolis of 20 million inhabitants, the streets lined with soldiers and armoured vehicles – deployed on Friday – were virtually deserted at dawn.

But thousands of people took to the streets again in Rampura district later and at least one person was injured by police gunfire, which used live ammunition, AFP found.

The crowd was protesting against a curfew that came into effect at midnight and is expected to last until at least 10 a.m. Sunday across Bangladesh.

“There is anarchy in the country (…). They shoot people like rabbits.“One of the protesters, Nazrul Islam, 52, told AFP.

Hospitals told AFP that the number of deaths from gunfire has risen since Thursday. Police fire was the cause of more than half of the deaths reported this week, according to medical staff.

On Friday, “hundreds of thousands of people” clashed with law enforcement, according to spokesman Faruk Hossain, adding that protesters vandalized and set fire to government offices and police stations.

“At least 150 police officers were hospitalized. Another 150 received medical attention.“, declared AFP.

Dhaka Medical College Hospital told AFP that Two police officers died on Saturday, while four other people admitted to intensive care died as a result of his injuries.

A representative of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organizing the protests, said two of its leaders had been detained since Friday.

The students who started the protest movement are demanding an end to a quota system that many say benefits young people from circles supporting Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009.

Given Bangladesh’s inability to provide jobs for its 170 million people, the programme is generating great resentment among young graduates who face a severe employment crisis.

The 76-year-old prime minister has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote that was almost predetermined.

Human rights activists accuse his government of abusing state institutions to consolidate its rule and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opponents.