Bangladesh tightened a nationwide curfew and ordered a shutdown of mobile Internet services for the second time in three weeks as renewed protests over the weekend led to more than 70 deaths.
The curfew, starting at 6 PM local time, will continue until further notice, according to the home ministry. The nation is also shutting government and private offices, including banks, for three days starting on Monday as it grapples with restoring order.
The measures are being imposed after a new wave of violence on Sunday, where protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clashed with pro-government supporters. The deaths included 13 law enforcement officials who were beaten to death after a mob attacked a police station in the city of Sirajganj.
On Sunday, a group set vehicles on fire at a government-run medical university and hospital near Shahbag square, a popular demonstration site in the capital of Dhaka. Most shops are shut and public transport disappeared from the capital’s streets as the violence spread.
The protesters also launched a disobedience movement, urging citizens to withhold tax or utility bills and asked overseas workers to stop sending remittances home, as part of the nationwide campaign to pressure Hasina and her cabinet to step down.
The ruling Awami League and its supporters held marches across the country on Sunday, seeking to maintain their position against the protesters, according to the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader.
Hasina’s office urged students and parents to return home, saying “militant attacks” took place in parts of Bangladesh. “The authorities will take tough action against the attackers,” Hasina’s office said in a message to the media.
The unrest stemmed from a controversial government jobs quota system, and demonstrations forced authorities to impose a curfew as well as a near-complete blackout of the mobile Internet for 11 straight days in July. Those protests left some 200 people dead.
Curfews and the Internet shutdown is estimated to have a $10 billion impact on the economy with costs expected to climb further, Zaved Akhtar, president of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said late last month. The FCCI represents investors from 35 countries.
Hasina has offered to meet protest coordinators and ordered the release of detained students as crowds swarmed streets across Dhaka on Saturday. “My doors are open. I want to sit with protesters and listen to them. I don’t want any conflict,” she said.
By Arun Devnath
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