Dhaka (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Student leaders mustered Bangladeshis for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s administration weathered a worsening backlash over a fatal police crackdown on protesters.
Protests against civil service job quotas flared days of mayhem last month that killed more than 200 people in some of the most destructive unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure. Troop deployments briefly revived order but crowds hit the streets in massive numbers after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority country, heeding a call by student leaders to push the government for more concessions.
Students Against Discrimination, the body responsible for organising the initial demonstrations, urged their affiliates to launch an all-out non-cooperation movement from Sunday. “This includes non-payment of taxes and utility bills, strikes by government workers and a halt to overseas remittance payments through banks,” the group’s Asif Mahmud said.
What Are the Demands of the Protesters?
Students are soliciting a public apology from Hasina for last month’s violence and the release of several of her ministers. They have also demanded that the government reopen schools and universities around the country, all of which were shuttered at the height of the unrest. Crowds on the road have gone further, demanding Hasina leave office altogether.
The non-cooperation strategy deliberately stimulates a historical civil disobedience movement during Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan. That earlier action was spearheaded by Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence head, and is recognised by Bangladeshis as a part of a proud battle against tyranny.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 76, has governed Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without a genuine opponent. Her government is blamed by rights groups for misusing state institutions to embed its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial slaying of opposition activists.
What Triggered the Recent Unrest in Bangladesh?
Demonstrations started in early July over the reintroduction of a quota system– since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top tribunal– that reserved more than half of all government positions for certain groups. With about 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government stats, the move bitter graduates face an acute employment crisis.
The demonstrations had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student bodies. Hasina’s government eventually charged a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and closed the nation’s mobile internet network for 11 days to revive order.
Foreign governments criticised the clampdown, with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week calling for a transnational probe into the “excessive and lethal force against protesters”.
