Thousands of people took to the streets of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, again on Friday, clashing with police and calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as they demanded justice for more than 200 people killed in demonstrations last month.
Reports from the capital said police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at demonstrators and lobbed stun grenades in some areas of the city, while crowds attacked police with stones. The Reuters news agency reported at least 20 people were injured in the clashes.
The Daily Star, an English-language newspaper based in the capital, reported that a police officer was killed after being attacked by protesters in Dhaka’s Khulna neighborhood, while a man was killed and 50 others were injured in the Habiganj district.
The newspaper said that more protests were planned across the country Saturday and Sunday.
The unrest is the worst of Hasina’s 15-year tenure. She was reelected to a fourth consecutive term in January.
Protests focus on job quota system
Violence erupted on July 15 when students, frustrated by a lack of job prospects, led protests against the nation’s government job quota system. That system reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups, particularly ruling party loyalists.
The protests turned deadly when, organizers said, protesters were attacked by police and pro-government groups. As the violence spiraled, Hasina’s government imposed a nationwide curfew and shut down the nation’s mobile internet network.
Deadly clashes between the protesters and security officers during the crackdown left more than 200 people dead. In a statement Friday, the South Asia regional director of the U.N. Children’s Fund, Sanjay Wijesekera, said 32 of those killed during the protests were children.
Wijesekera said in the statement that he was also aware of children being detained by authorities in connection with the protests. According to international human rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Bangladesh is a signatory, he said, children should not be arrested or detained and called for an end to the practice.
The violent crackdown on the protesters has drawn international condemnation from the United Nations as a whole and the United States.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
