Student protesters demanding reforms to the government quota system for hiring government employees announced plans on Wednesday to impose a total nationwide lockdown on Thursday following actions by security forces that left at least six people dead, including four students, across the country.
Asif Mahmood, the movement’s main coordinator, said in a Facebook post that all establishments except hospitals and emergency services will remain closed, with only emergency services being allowed to operate.
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The movement encourages students from all educational institutions to participate and urges parents to support the initiative, the paper said.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that she “deeply regrets” the deaths caused by violence over student protests and said she would set up a judicial commission of inquiry.
Prime Minister Hasina urged the protesters to have faith in the Supreme Court as the matter is pending before the court.
“Our students have faith that justice will be delivered (at the Supreme Court). They will not be disappointed,” she said in an unscheduled national address, a day after protests spread in major cities across the country on Tuesday and continued on Wednesday, leaving six people dead.
Wearing a black sari and appearing on live television to mark Ashura, a Bangladeshi national Muslim day of mourning, she said she was “very sad and disappointed” about the casualties of the student protests, adding that “precious lives have been lost for no just reason”.
She vowed to hold a judicial inquiry into the murders and said she would “provide all necessary support to the families of those killed in the violence.” “I make it clear that steps will be taken to ensure that whoever commits murder, looting and acts of terrorism receives appropriate punishment,” the prime minister said.
But Prime Minister Hasina denied the student protesters were involved in “terrorist acts” and blamed “certain vested interests” for inciting the violence, urging students not to give any opening to miscreants to exploit the situation.
In response to the violence, the government late on Tuesday indefinitely closed all public and private universities, schools and colleges across Bangladesh and asked students to leave their dormitories.
Four of the dead were students and the other two were small traders, according to media reports — two in the capital Dhaka, three in the southeastern port city of Chittagong and one in the northwestern city of Rampur.
On Tuesday, a second-year student from the northwestern university of Ramsar was shot dead by police during a protest on the university campus, becoming the first victim.
“He was standing alone with his arms outstretched, protesting the police crackdown on demonstrators, when suddenly he was shot by a police officer. He tried to return to the (student) protest but collapsed to the ground just a few minutes later,” the newspaper reported.
But the violence continued on Wednesday, with scores of protesters injured in clashes with police and student activists from the ruling Awami League party, according to media reports and witnesses.
Police used rubber bullets, tear gas and sound grenades on the Dhaka University campus, they said.
Jahangirnagar University on the outskirts of the capital and Rajshahi University in the northwest.
Despite the prime minister’s call, protesters vowed to continue their protests, with coordinator Asif Mahmood saying the country would be put under a complete shutdown on Thursday.
He said he decided to protest against “the killings and assaults of protesters and others” by police, the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), the elite Crime Action Battalion (RAB) and police SWAT units.
“Doors of facilities other than hospitals and emergency rooms will not open. No vehicles other than ambulances will ply the streets. I call on students of all schools, universities, private colleges and madrasas to make tomorrow’s programme a success,” he announced in a Facebook post.
Fifty-six percent of government jobs are reserved under the current quota system, of which 30 percent are reserved for descendants of freedom fighters of the 1971 Liberation War, 10 percent for backward administrative districts, 10 percent for women, 5 percent for ethnic minority groups and 1 percent for people with disabilities.
Around 3,000 government jobs are open to around 400,000 graduates each year.
Protesters campaigned for reform, saying the system was preventing talented students from being recruited into top and second-tier government jobs.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Wednesday urged Bangladeshi authorities to engage with the protesting students, adding that “any acts of violence or use of force, especially those resulting in loss of life, must be investigated and perpetrators held accountable.”
In a message on his X handle, he said freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental human rights.
His comments came a day after Amnesty International called on Bangladeshi authorities to “immediately guarantee the safety of all peaceful protesters” and the US State Department also condemned “violence against peaceful protesters”, drawing condemnation from the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry.
In the 2018 protests, protesters held almost identical street protests demanding “reforms” to the quota system when the government initially “abolished” it despite reservations, but this was recently overturned by a Division Bench of the High Court and the issue has now reached the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division.
But the Appellate Division of Bangladesh’s Supreme Court last week stayed the high court order for four weeks, with Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan calling on the protesting students to return to classes and saying the court would deliver its ruling within four weeks.
Dhaka University authorities on Wednesday announced the indefinite closure of the institution.
Students have been asked to vacate their hostels by Wednesday evening.
The decision was taken at an emergency syndicate meeting held at Vice Chancellor ASM Maqsood Kamal’s office, the Dhaka Tribune quoted Vice Chancellor (Academic) Prof Sitesh C Bachar as saying.
“Considering the safety of students, we have decided to close the university indefinitely and evacuate them,” Bashar told The Daily Star.
However, students of the university are protesting against the decision and have thronged the Chancellor’s residence, the report added.
