Bangladesh protests death toll nears 180, with more than 2,500 people arrested after days of unrest

Dhaka — The number of arrests in days of violence in Bangladesh passed the 2,500 mark in an AFP tally on Tuesday, after protests over employment quotas sparked widespread unrest. At least 174 people have died, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

What began as demonstrations against politicized admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed last week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure. A curfew was imposed and soldiers deployed across the South Asian country, and a nationwide internet blackout drastically restricted the flow of information, upending daily life for many.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court pared back the number of reserved jobs for specific groups, including the descendants of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

The student group leading the demonstrations suspended its protests Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood.”

The restrictions remained in place 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 key roads blocked with barbed wire. But more people were on the streets, as were hundreds of rickshaws.

“I did not drive rickshaws the first few days of curfew, But today I didn’t have any choice,” rickshaw driver Hanif told AFP. “If I don’t do it, my family will go hungry.”

The head of Students Against Discrimination, the main group organizing the protests, told AFP in his hospital room Monday that he feared for his life after being abducted and beaten, and the group said Tuesday at least four of its leaders were missing, asking authorities to “return” them by the evening.

The authorities’ response to the protests has been widely criticized, with Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus urging “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence” in a statement.

The respected 83-year-old economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but earned the enmity of Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

“Young people are being killed at random every day,” Yunus told AFP. “Hospitals do not reveal the number of wounded and dead.”

Diplomats in Dhaka also questioned the government’s actions, with U.S. Ambassador Peter Haas telling the foreign minister he had shown a one-sided video at a briefing to diplomats.

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

More than 1,200 people detained over the course of the violence — nearly half the 2,580 total — were held in Dhaka and its rural and industrial areas, according to police officials who spoke to AFP.

Almost 600 were arrested in Chittagong and its rural areas, with hundreds more detentions tallied in multiple districts across the country.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the June reintroduction of the quota scheme — halted since 2018 — deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

With protests mounting across the country, the Supreme Court on Sunday curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, mostly for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

While 93 percent of jobs will be awarded on merit, the decision fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

Late Monday, Hasina’s spokesman told AFP the prime minister had approved a government order putting the Supreme Court’s judgement into effect.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s ruling Awami League.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also 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.