Bangladesh police take into safe custody three student protest leaders days after deadly violence

DHAKA: Bangladesh police have taken into safe custody three protest coordinators, claiming on Saturday that it was done for their “safety,” days after the deadly nationwide violence demanding reforms in the quota system in government jobs.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has termed the violence that claimed to have killed more than 200 people as part of a grave conspiracy to reduce Bangladesh into a nation of beggars.

Media reports said the spokesman of the Students against Discrimination Nahid Islam and two other senior leaders of the group were forcibly discharged from a hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives on Friday.

On Saturday, talking about the overnight arrests, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told newspersons at the river port town of Narayanganj: “It was done to ensure their own safety . . . we need to interrogate them and identify those threatening them.”

He said the authorities would decide on the next steps “after the interrogation.”

Police’s Detective Branch chief Harun Or Rashid said earlier in the day that families of the quota movement leaders were worried about their safety and therefore “we took them in our custody to keep them safe.”

Prime Minister Hasina on Saturday said the recent violence was part of a grave conspiracy to reduce Bangladesh into a nation of beggars again by crippling the country's economy.

After visiting the state-run National Orthopaedic Hospital, where some injured in the violence are being treated, Hasina said she wanted to know from the countrymen who will now shoulder the responsibilities of the casualties and the massive destruction.

“She questioned what was her fault. The premier continued that she has been tirelessly working to change the fate of the people and elevate their living standard,” the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) said quoting her.

“But, I seek justice from the countrymen,” she added.

Authorities quelled the protest by enforcing a nationwide curfew and calling out army troops after the deployment of the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) appeared inadequate to halt the violence, which according to media tally, took the lives of more than 200 people.

However, analysts and media commentators said the halt of violence could not remove the anger and discontent against the ruling Awami League and the law enforcement agencies for mishandling the students' demands causing the casualties, most of them being students.

A highly placed government source, preferring anonymity, however, said: “We are yet to know the exact figure but the officials concerned are working to tally the causality figure” during the violence.

Several major government offices and installations, including the state-run Bangladesh Television (BTV), were damaged during the widespread violence last week.

The protests started in universities and colleges earlier this month demanding the revision of the existing quota system which kept 56 per cent of civil service and second-class government jobs reserved for descendants of 1971 Liberation War freedom fighters, women, backward districts, ethnic minority groups and handicapped people.

The five-day mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

The apex Appellate Division of unitary Bangladesh’s Supreme Court earlier on Sunday ordered a massive quota reform keeping only seven per cent of reserve posts instead of the existing 56 per cent.

The government subsequently issued a Gazette notification in line with the order, saying 93 per cent of jobs would be open to candidates on merit.

The peaceful demonstration rapidly turned into a violent and widespread anti-government movement, with Prime Minister Hasina’s Awami League attributing the violence to be backed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and carried out by fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami and their student wing Chhatra Shibir.

“What started with students of universities peacefully protesting for the reformation of the quota system in public jobs, ended up with hundreds of people getting killed, thousands severely injured, and immeasurable damage being done to public properties,” the mass-circulation Daily Star said in a comment.

It added, “when public university students first started taking to the streets, they repeated time and again that they had only one demand: for the executive branch of the government to reform the quota system.”