Bangladeshi students have called for new street protests on Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ignored an ultimatum to release their leaders and apologize for those killed in the recent unrest. Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that resulted in at least 205 deaths, including several police officers, according to AFP’s count of police and hospital data.
The clashes were some of the worst during Hasina’s 15-year tenure. However, her government has since largely restored order by deploying troops, imposing a curfew, and shutting down the internet nationwide. At least half a dozen leaders of Students Against Discrimination, the group that organized the initial protests, are among the thousands taken into police custody.
“The government is continuing to show complete and utter insensitivity to our movement,” said Abdul Kader, one of the group’s coordinators, in a statement. “We are calling for a protest rally across the country. We are requesting all citizens of Bangladesh to show solidarity with our demands and join in our movement.”
Students Against Discrimination leaders had vowed to resume demonstrations if police failed to release their leaders by Sunday evening. Their demands also include a public apology from Hasina for the violence, the dismissal of several ministers, and the reopening of schools and universities that were closed at the height of the unrest.
According to Prothom Alo, Bangladesh’s largest daily newspaper, at least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began. Troops continue to patrol urban areas, and a nationwide curfew remains in force but has been progressively eased since last week.
Bangladesh’s mobile internet network was restored on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout, indicating the government’s confidence that it has control of the situation.
Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis. Critics claim the quota is used to fill public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League.
The Supreme Court reduced the number of reserved jobs last week but did not meet the protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition. Rights groups accuse her government of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and suppress dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
