At least 73 people were killed and hundreds injured in Bangladesh on Sunday, according to hospital sources, in clashes between protesters and government supporters, backed by police, who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of citizens demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The day was one of the most violent since protests began in July to demand an end to public employment quotas that they consider discriminatory in one of the poorest countries in the world.
The Bangladeshi government has reimposed an indefinite curfew across the country from 6 p.m. (2 p.m. in mainland Spain) on Sunday and has decreed the closure of all government offices and courts for the next three days. The unrest in recent weeks, which has led the government to shut down internet services on several occasions, is the worst that the country, the eighth most populous in the world, has experienced in the 20 years in which Hasina has been at the head of the Executive (1996-2001 and 2009-2024). The 76-year-old prime minister won a fourth consecutive term in office last January in elections that were boycotted by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Hasina’s critics, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, both through the police and the armed forces, which were deployed on the streets to control the protests. “The Bangladesh army will perform its duty as mandated by the Constitution and the laws of the country. In this regard, we request the people to observe the curfew and cooperate fully,” the military said in a statement on Sunday.
The violence on Sunday was not limited to the streets of Dhaka, the country’s capital, where the student movement behind the protests has called on all protesters in the country to demonstrate their strength on Monday. At least five people died in the eastern district of Feni, the superintendent of Sadar hospital, Abul Khair Miazi, told EFE. The head of the Kishoreganj administration, Abul Kalam Azad, said that three people died, including two burned to death “when the house of a leader of the Awami League (government) was set on fire.” One of the districts where the most deaths were recorded was Sirajganj. Five people died in the region, according to the head of health services, Mohammad Jahangir Alam, in addition to thirteen members of the security forces at a police station.
Hospital sources confirmed dozens of dead and wounded in several districts of the country, including the capital and Bogura, Pabna and Magura. Some of them, like the two who died in the Munshiganj district, were shot, according to the superintendent of the health centre where they were treated, Abu Hena Muhammad Jamal. The clashes in the Bangladeshi capital, as in many other areas of the country, turned the city into a war zone on Sunday due to violent clashes between protesters and Hasina supporters, many of whom were carrying sticks and metal objects.
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