DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh was slowly returning to normal with limited internet and office hours on Wednesday after more than a week of chaos over student protests involving government employment quotas. Almost 200 deaths were recorded in just over a week of violence.
Most of the country was still without internet, but thousands of cars were driving on the streets of the capital after authorities relaxed the curfew for seven hours.
Offices and banks opened for a few hours on Wednesday as authorities restored broadband internet connection in some areas of Dhaka and the second-largest city of Chattogram. Authorities said the curfew will continue in Dhaka and other places until the situation improves.
Since July 16, at least 197 people have been killed in violence, leading Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo reported Wednesday. The Associated Press could not confirm the death toll from any official source.
Schools and other educational institutions have remained closed until further notice.
Since July 15, there have been clashes between the police and protesters, mainly students, who demand the end of a quota that reserved 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in The Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. The chaos turned deadly after the country’s main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party extended their support for the protests. As violence spread across the country, many government establishments were also attacked in Dhaka.
On Sunday, the Supreme Court ordered that 1971 The quota for war veterans will be reduced to 5%.. Thus, 93% of public administration jobs will be based on merit, while the remaining 2% will be reserved for members of ethnic minorities, as well as transgender and disabled people.
On Tuesday, the government issued a circular accepting a Supreme Court verdict reforming the quota system for government jobs. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government welcomed the verdict and said it was ready to implement it.
Protesters took their time responding to Sunday’s verdict, saying on Tuesday that the Supreme Court verdict and subsequent government circular were in favor of the protesters, but that the government should be held accountable for the bloodshed and deaths. that involved the protests.
The protests have posed the most serious challenge to the Bangladesh government since Hasina. won a fourth consecutive term in the January elections that the main opposition groups boycotted. Universities were closed, the Internet was cut off, and the government ordered people to stay home.
Protesters had argued that the quota system was discriminatory and benefited supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and they wanted to replace it with a merit-based system. Hasina has defended the quota system, saying that the veterans who fought, who died and the women who were raped and tortured in 1971 deserve the utmost respect regardless of their political affiliation.
The Awami League and the BNP have often accused each other of fueling political chaos and violence, most recently ahead of the country’s national elections, which were marred by a repression against several opposition figures.
On Wednesday, the government relaxed the curfew from 10am to 5pm and opened offices and banks from 11am to 3pm, while clothing factories exporting mainly to Western countries also opened. Some major roads in Dhaka were congested with traffic.
Justice Minister Anisul Huq has repeatedly said the violence became serious when armed cadres of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami joined the protests and attacked many government facilities, including the headquarters of Bangladesh state television, two toll plazas of a flyover and a highway, two metro stations in Dhaka. Hundreds of government-owned vehicles were also set on fire.
The headquarters of the main opposition party were raided and closed. Police said they recovered iron sticks and rods and locally made weapons from the opposition party headquarters in Dhaka.
Bu Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, general secretary of the main opposition, rejected the allegations and blamed the government for the huge number of deaths.
On Tuesday night, authorities only partially restored broadband internet service in Dhaka and Chattogram after six days, said Zunaid Ahmed Palak, junior minister of Information and Communication Technology.
He blamed protesters, calling them miscreants, for days of internet shutdowns when a main data center caught fire and fiber optic connections were severed. He said the Internet would be gradually restored across the country, but for now corporate companies, banks, diplomatic zones and some other areas would have Internet.
This comes after days before a curfew was established with orders to shoot on sight and military personnel could be seen patrolling the capital and other areas. Authorities said some 27,000 soldiers were deployed across the country to help the civil administration maintain law and order.
Hasina has been holding a series of meetings with the heads of the three wings of the army, senior business leaders and political partners as she said the curfew was imposed to restore normalcy. He also blamed the opposition for the violence and said the perpetrators would not be spared.
The US Embassy described the situation on Sunday as volatile and unpredictable, adding that guns, tear gas and other weapons have been used in the vicinity of the embassy. They urged Americans to be vigilant, avoid large crowds and reconsider their travel plans.
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