Mass riots in Bangladesh: about 1200 detained, 173 killed
Kyiv • UNN
Mass protests against employment quotas continue in Bangladesh. According to AFP, about 1,200 people have been detained, and at least 173 people, including police officers, have been killed.
Bangladesh has been gripped by riots over a protest over employment quotas, with the number of detentions at rallies approaching 1,200, according to AFP estimates as of Tuesday, UNN reports.
Details
At least 173 people were killed, including several police officers, according to a separate AFP casualty count, with police and hospitals reporting the figures.
What began with demonstrations against politicized quotas for admission to sought-after government jobs last week escalated into some of the most serious unrest during the tenure of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The student group that led the demonstrations suspended its protests on Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they did not want reforms "at the cost of so much blood.
A curfew was imposed and soldiers were deployed across the South Asian country, while a nationwide Internet blackout from Thursday severely limited the flow of information.
On Sunday, the country's Supreme Court reduced the number of reserved jobs for certain groups, including descendants of "freedom fighters" during Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
The restrictions remained in place on Tuesday after the army commander said the law and order situation was "under control.
At least 200 people were detained in the central districts of Narayanganj and Narsingdi, their police chiefs told the newspaper, and at least 80 people were held in Bogra.
According to senior police officials, at least 168 people were detained in the industrial city of Gazipur, 75 in the northern city of Rangpur, and 60 in Borysal in the south.
In rural and industrial parts of Dhaka, 80 people were detained, in addition to the earlier figure of at least 532 people in the capital itself, for a total of 1,195 people.
On Tuesday, there was a strong military presence in Dhaka, with bunkers set up at some intersections and key roads blocked with barbed wire.
But there were more people on the streets, as well as hundreds of rickshaws, the newspaper notes.
