In response to the actions of the security troops, which resulted in at least six fatalities, including four students, in the country, student demonstrators on Wednesday announced plans to impose a full global shutdown on Thursday. A key coordinator of the action, Asif Mahmud, in a Twitter post said all institutions, barring hospitals and emergency service, will be shut, and only emergency services may be permitted to operate.
According to the news, the movements calls on protectors to support their cause and invites students from all educational institutions to take part.
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, expressed regret over the deaths of students protesters in a statement to the country on Wednesday, saying a criminal investigation commission would be established.
Since the controversy is still pending, Hasina appealed to the demonstrators to keep faith in the nation’s peak judge.
” I think our students will receive justice ( in the apex court ),” he said. They wo n’t be let down,” she declared in an untimed national address the day after six people died as the protest spread to major cities across the nation on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday.
She wore a black saree and spoke on a live television broadcast that was broadcast on the Muslim mourning day of” Ashura,” which is a national holiday in Bangladesh, and said the deaths from the student demonstrations were “very saddening and terrible,” adding that” for no just reason some valuable lives were lost.”
She urged a criminal investigation into the deaths and said,” I will do whatever it takes to help the families of those killed in the crime.”
” I declare firmly that action will be taken to maintain that those who have committed murder, looting and criminal activities, whoever they may be, get suitable punishment”, the top said.
Hasina, but, held” some conferred rooms” accountable for starting the assault, claiming that the protesting individuals were not involved in the “terrorist acts” and urging them not to allow scoundrels to take advantage of the situation.
Later on Tuesday, the government asked personal students to leave dormitories because of the violence, prompting the government to shut down all public and private universities in Bangladesh as well as schools and colleges for an indefinite period.
Four of the deceased were kids, according to media studies, and the other two were small investors. In the capital city of Dhaka, three people were killed, three in Chattogram, in the southeast of the country, and one more in northern Rangpur.
Northwestern Rangpur University’s second-year pupil was the first victim on Tuesday when he was fatally shot by police during a rally on the school.
” He stood, hands spread wide, only, challenging the officers onslaught against protesters. He was unavoidably shot by a police agent. He tried to get back to protesting ( students ), but collapsed to the ground mere minutes later”, a newspaper reported.
However, witnesses and press reports claimed assault persisted on Wednesday when results of protesters were injured in clashes with reported ruling Awami League student activists and officers.
They claimed that officers used rubber bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs on the campuses of the top universities in Dhaka, Jahangirnagar University on the fringes of the money, and northern Rajshahi University.
The protestors vowed to continue their protests with Asif Mahmud, the country’s consultant, despite the premier’s request, saying Thursday would be a perfect shutdown.
He said they decided to protest against” the killings, beatings of protesters and others” by police, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh ( BGB), elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police’s Swat unit.
” Another than hospitals and emergency no university’s doors will open. Other than paramedics, no cars may trade the road. I am calling on students of every class, college, university, personal school, and Madrasah to help make today’s project a achievement”, he announced in a Twitter post.
According to the current quota system, 5-6 % of government jobs are reserved for the decedents of the liberation fighters from the 1971 Liberation War, with 10 % for the underprivileged administrative districts, 10 % for women, 5 % for ethnic minority groups, and 1 % for the people with disabilities.
Every year some 3, 000 government jobs open up to nearly 400, 000 graduates.
The protestors launched a campaign for system reform, claiming that it would ban meritorious students from applying for positions in first- and second-class government.
Volker Turk, the UN’s human rights chief, pleaded with Bangladesh’s authorities on Wednesday to “engage with protesting students” and that “every act of violence and use of force, especially those that lead to fatalities, must be investigated and perpetrators held accountable.
He claimed that fundamental human rights include the right to free expression and peaceful assembly in a message on X-Tree.
His statement came a day after Amnesty International urged Bangladesh’s authorities to “immediately guarantee the safety of all peaceful protesters,” while the US state department also criticized the practice of “violence against peaceful protesters,” which sparked a rebuke from Bangladesh’s foreign ministry.
The protesters in 2018 staged a nearly identical street demonstration in protest of a quota system “reforms” after the government “abolished” it following a recent high court division bench, dragging the case to the Supreme Court’s apex appellate division.
However, the Supreme Court of Unitary Bangladesh temporarily suspended the High Court’s order for four weeks while Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan requested that protesting students resume classes, claiming that the apex court would make a decision in four weeks.
On Wednesday, officials at the world’s largest university, Dhaka University, announced an indefinite closure of the institution.
By Wednesday evening, the students have been instructed to leave their dorms.
Vice chancellor ASM Maksud Kamal’s office hosted an emergency syndicate meeting where pro-VC ( academic ) professor Sitesh C. Bachar was quoted by the Dhaka Tribune as saying this.
We have decided to close the university indefinitely and evict the halls, according to Bachar, who quoted The Daily Star as saying” considering the security of the students.”
However, students of the university are protesting the decision, and they have thronged the VC’s residence, the report added.
