INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Bangladesh has arrested more than 10,000 people and banned a major opposition party as part of a crackdown on dissent after weeks of
protests.The country has been in turmoil since a mass student movement began against quotas for government jobs
It escalated into deadly clashes when protesters were attacked by pro-government groups and hit by police with teargas, rubber bullets and
pellets.According to human rights groups, at least 266 people were killed in the violence and more than 7,000 injured.Activists have accused
the government, led by the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, of an authoritarian witch-hunt against student leaders and political opposition
groups, who it has sought to blame for the violence.At least 10,372 people, including many political opposition leaders, have been arrested
since the protests began, and the authorities are accused of arbitrarily detaining many others without charge.Families of those detained
said students who had attended peaceful protests or expressed support for the movement on social media were being rounded up en masse by
police in the middle of the night, with relatives denied any information on their whereabouts
through block raids, detaining individuals at night, enforced disappearances and not presenting them in court within 24 hours; these actions
are unconstitutional and violate many international conventions
authoritarian and tyrannical rule on Bangladesh, where critics, political opponents and activists are routinely arrested or kidnapped by
Successive elections have been widely documented as being rigged in her favour and she has systematically crushed and imprisoned the
Jamaat-e-Islami, and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, accusing them of stirring up violence.Jamaat-e-Islami was already barred from
contesting elections but the new order extended the prohibition, preventing the party from all activities and gatherings
university campuses in June against the re-introduction of quotas for all government jobs, which meant that 30% were to be reserved for the
descendants of those who fought in the Bangladesh independence war in 1971, a system that students decried as discriminatory and unjust.But
as the protests became more widespread and took on a broader anti-government message, with calls for Hasina to resign, the state responded
Police were authorised to use heavy force against demonstrators, and thousands were injured after teargas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and
in some cases live ammunition was fired at them.The protests briefly quietened last week after the supreme court reduced the controversial
Student protest groups then presented Hasina with a list of demands, including justice for those killed in the clashes, stating they would
resume their actions if she did not respond.After Hasina ignored their demands and the state instead began arresting and surveilling student
leaders, protests resumed and activists were hit with teargas and stun grenades by police
In the city of Barisal, at least 10 people were injured as police baton-charged protesters
In the capital, Dhaka, police detained at least seven students near the high court, where lawyers and university teachers had joined the
attempts to suppress them
There is a wind of change and history tells us that authoritarian leaders resist change
If I am picked up, my fellow brothers will take over
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
