Bangladesh Issues ‘Shoot-On-Sight-Order’ As Deadly Student-Led Protests Spiral

Weeks-long protests in Bangladesh led by students have descended into increasing violence amid severe economic woes and a new controversial law widely seen as unfairly rewarding supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party with lucrative government jobs.

Since early June, campus-based protests have called for a complete shutdown of the country until the new policy is repealed. A High Court ruling at the start of the summer came down in favor of a quota system which secures 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

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The student protesters have demanded a system based on merit. A series of initially peaceful university protests resulted in increasingly chaotic scenes and clashes with police, resulting in casualties. From there protests have grown nation-wide.

Deaths among protesters have grown into the dozens, with the police reporting casualties as well. Some reports say over 100 demonstrators have died and that this figure is climbing by the day.

Communications have been intermittently disrupted for the nation of 170 million people as authorities desperately try to gain control of the situation.

Authorities have also escalated, as of Saturday allowing security forces to use live-fire to put down protests:

Police imposed a strict curfew with a “shoot-on-sight” order across Bangladesh as military forces patrolled parts of the capital Saturday after scores were killed and hundreds injured in clashes over the allocation of civil service jobs.

The curfew began at midnight and was relaxed from noon to 2 p.m. for people to run essential errands, and is expected to last until 10 a.m. Sunday, allowing officers to fire on mobs in extreme cases, said lawmaker Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party.

Police and military checkpoints have been set up in the streets of the capital Dhaka in order to enforce the curfew.

Over 100 Dead in Bangladesh Student Protests Over Government Job Quotas

More than 100 people have died during student protests in Bangladesh, as demonstrators demand the abolition of quotas for government jobs. With the country facing a high youth unemployment rate, students are… pic.twitter.com/aWXHNIhDYF

— OSINT Aggregator (@AggregateOsint) July 20, 2024

It’s essentially a state of martial law, with one eyewitness saying, “The public is anxious as people didn’t expect the army to be deployed. But some people are also relieved because there is a great deal of respect for the army in Bangladesh.”

And an Al Jazeera correspondent has described, “There are a lot of ordinary people who are supporting the students. There’s a great degree of frustration in the country right now and many people don’t accept this government and feel like the prime minister came to power by force.”

#Bangladesh announced the closure of all public and private universities due to massive countrywide protests demanding reforms to the jobs quota system.
More https://t.co/OXah3e7qHz @uniworldnews pic.twitter.com/vGEaZ46BpY #bangladeshstudentprotests

— Sri Lanka Tweet 🇱🇰 (@SriLankaTweet) July 20, 2024

The government has meanwhile accused opposition parties of stoking the unrest, and has condemned the destruction of property and further pointed out some 300 police officers have been injured.