The turmoil in Bangladesh reached a new height on Friday as student protesters freed hundreds of inmates from a jail in the Narsingdi district and set the prison building on fire, local police reported.
“The inmates fled the jail and the protesters set the jail on fire,” a police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. “I don’t know the number of inmates, but it would be in the hundreds,” he added.
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A senior Bangladesh government official confirmed the jailbreak but did not provide further details.
In response to the escalating violence, Dhaka’s police force banned all public gatherings for the day. “We’ve banned all rallies, processions, and public gatherings in Dhaka today,” police chief Habibur Rahman announced, citing the necessity to ensure “public safety.”
‘At least two-thirds of reported deaths due to police firing’
Amid escalating unrest in Bangladesh, reports suggest approximately 400 students have been injured in the ongoing protests, with police firing cited as the cause of at least two-thirds of the reported deaths, according to hospital staff descriptions to AFP.
In response to the turmoil, the Bangladesh government has indefinitely closed schools and colleges. Protesters and police forces have blockaded roads across half of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, exacerbating the crisis.
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The government has implemented an internet and news coverage shutdown, but reports indicate that protestors have vandalized and set fire to state broadcaster BTV, as well as government and police buildings. The police have referred to the protestors as “miscreants” responsible for the destruction.
Journalist death
The unrest has also seen violence against journalists covering the protests. Seventeen-year-old student and reporter Hasan Mehdi died on Thursday due to police violence.
Despite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s national address on the now-offline state broadcaster seeking to calm the situation, students remain steadfast in their demands. They call for an apology and the rollback of a contentious job quota scheme, which reserves over half of government jobs for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
The protests began following a Supreme Court ruling to reinstate the job quota scheme, which had previously been revoked after similar student protests in 2018 against PM Hasina. The peaceful protests turned violent when the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student faction of the ruling Awami League party, clashed with the demonstrators.
The ongoing crackdown on news media and the resulting violence highlight the tense atmosphere in the country as students vow to continue their campaign until their demands are met.
What made things worse was when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina likened the student protestors to ‘razakars’. ‘Razakars’ are those who had sided with the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.
