Dhaka:

Over 150 students were injured in Bangladesh during clashes at a university campus this week, a sign of serious discord between groups instrumental in fomenting the national revolution last year that led to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s downfall following 15-year rule. The clash between student outfits backing different political ideologies erupted at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology (KEUT) in the country’s southwest reportedly erupted over the issue of banning student politics on the university campus.

The violence began on Tuesday afternoon after the youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — the Jatiyotabadi Chatro Dol (JCD)– sought to recruit students at KUET. This sparked a confrontation with campus members of Students Against Discrimination (SAD), a protest group that led the uprising that ousted ex-premier Hasina last August.

The unrest on the campus was aggravated with protestors halting the functioning of the institute and all academic activities. The students are also demanding the resignation of Vice Chancellor Mohammad Mashud.

On Tuesday night, protesting students also reportedly locked up Mr Mashud and other senior officials on the KUET campus after a physical altercation.

Situation Under Control

At least 50 people were taken for treatment after the skirmish, Khulna police officer Kabir Hossain told news agency AFP.

“The situation is now under control, and an extra contingent of police has been deployed,” he added.

Footage of the violence showing rival groups wielding scythes and machetes, along with injured students being carted to hospital for treatment, was widely shared on Facebook.

Student Groups Blamed Each Other 

Both groups blamed the other for starting the violence, with the BNP student wing chief Nasir Uddin Nasir accusing members of Student Against Discrimination and Bangladesh Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, of initiating the recent attack and agitating the situation to force a confrontation.

Jamaat activists “created this unwarranted clash”, he told AFP. 

Local student Obayed Ullah told AFP that the JCD had defied a decision by the campus to remain free of activities by established political parties. He added that there was “no presence” of Jamaat on campus.

The incident provoked outrage among students elsewhere in the country, with a protest rally held late Tuesday night to condemn the BNP’s youth wing at Dhaka University.  

It is alleged that JCD activists distributed leaflets at the campus on Monday supporting the resumption of student politics on campus. SAD, on the other hand, responded with a parade in the university with various slogans for keeping the ban on student politics. 

Student Protest That Led To Hasina’s Fall

Students Against Discrimination launched protests last year that toppled Bangladesh’s former government and chased ex-leader Hasina into exile after 15 years of iron-fisted rule. 

Activists from the BNP joined with student protesters in the final days of Ms Hasina’s tenure, defying a bloody crackdown by security forces that killed hundreds.

The BNP is widely expected to win fresh elections slated to be held by the middle of next year under the supervision of the South Asian country’s current caretaker administration. 

Student leaders have, meanwhile, struggled to turn their success in engineering Ms Hasina’s fall into a durable political force. The student protesters, who spearheaded the movement against Ms Hasina, are set to launch a new party in Bangladesh.

Initially, they reportedly formed the Jatiya Nagorik Committee (JNC), a platform designed as a pressure group to bring together people from diverse backgrounds and political ideologies. They have so far wielded significant grassroots influence under the banners of the JNC and the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM), according to a report by The Hindu.

According to the report, the student leaders are likely to be announced on February 24. 

Meanwhile, the South Asian country’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, who heads the caretaker government installed after a popular revolution in August, announced that general elections in Bangladesh will be held in late 2025 or early 2026. 

A protester vandalises a mural of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with paint, demanding her resignation, at Teacher Student Center area of University of Dhaka, in Dhaka. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal has started an investigation against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and nine others on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity that took place from July 15 to August 5 during students’ mass movement against her government.

A complaint was filed on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) with the investigation agency of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal against Ms. Hasina, Awami League general secretary and former Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, and several other prominent figures within the party.

The complainant’s lawyer Gazi M.H. Tamim confirmed on Thursday (August 15, 2024) that the Tribunal started the probe, The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

He said the investigation agency started the investigation on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) night.

The Hasina-led Awami League along with its affiliated organisations is also named in the petition.

The petition was filed by Bulbul Kabir, the father of Arif Ahmed Siam, a Class IX student who was killed during the anti-discrimination student movement.

Mr. Kabir’s application accuses Ms. Hasina and others of orchestrating a violent crackdown on student protestors, resulting in widespread casualties and human rights violations.

The complaint came on a day when the interim government said that the murders conducted within the period from July 1 to August 5 would be tried by the International Crimes Tribunal.

Separately, a case of enforced disappearance was filed on Wednesday (August 14, 2024) against Ms. Hasina and several others, including former Ministers of her Cabinet, on the charge of kidnapping a lawyer in 2015.

On Tuesday (August 13, 2024), a murder case was filed against Ms. Hasina and six others over the death of a grocery shop owner during last month’s violent clashes that led to the fall of her government.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Thursday (August 15, 2024) asked police to submit by September 15 the probe report of the case filed against Ms. Hasina and six others over the death of grocery shop owner Abu Saeed in police firing in the capital’s Mohammadpur area during the quota protests on July 19.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Zaki Al Farabi set the date after the case was placed before his court for the next course of action.

The student-led protests demanding reforms in government job quotas evolved into a government-toppling movement in early August.

Over 230 people died in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina Government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 during the three weeks of violence.

Following Ms. Hasina’s resignation, a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was formed in the country, promising to address administrative and political reforms and hold accountable those involved in the violence.

Separately, a case of enforced disappearance was filed on Wednesday against Hasina and several others, including former ministers of her cabinet, on the charge of kidnapping a lawyer in 2015.

On Tuesday, a murder case was filed against Hasina and six others over the death of a grocery shop owner during last month’s violent clashes that led to the fall of her government.

Meanwhile, a Dhaka court on Thursday asked police to submit by September 15 the probe report of the case filed against Hasina and six others over the death of grocery shop owner Abu Saeed in police firing in the capital’s Mohammadpur area during the quota protests on July 19.

Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Md Zaki Al Farabi set the date after the case was placed before his court for the next course of action.

The student-led protests demanding reforms in government job quotas evolved into a government-toppling movement in early August.

Over 230 people died in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 during the three weeks of violence.

Following Hasina’s resignation, a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was formed in the country, promising to address administrative and political reforms and hold accountable those involved in the violence.

Dhaka:

Bangladesh was experiencing a “student-led revolution” after the ouster of premier Sheikh Hasina, the South Asian country’s new interim leader Muhammad Yunus said.

“This is a revolution, a student-led revolution,” the Nobel laureate told a news briefing on Sunday.

“There’s no doubt about (that) because the business of the whole government collapsed.”

Yunus, 84, arrived back in Bangladesh from Europe on Thursday after he was called by the student leaders of the protests that toppled Hasina and asked to steer democratic reforms.

“I said, ‘I respect you, I admire you. What you have done is absolutely unparallelled’,” he said.

“‘Because you ordered me to do this, I take your order’,” Yunus said he told them.

Several top allies of Hasina, whose iron-fisted tenure ended with her abrupt resignation and flight to neighbouring India a week ago, subsequently stepped down.

Among them were the former chief justice of the Supreme Court and the central bank governor.

They had been issued ultimatums to quit their posts by students but Yunus said their resignations had been conducted legally.

“They want to have a new court,” he said of the students. “So they went there and asked the chief justice to resign and put their pressure to make him resign.”

“I’m sure they will find the legal way to justify all of this, because legally… all the steps were followed,” he said.

– ‘The monster is gone’ –

Hasina, 76, fled by helicopter as protesters flooded Dhaka’s streets in a dramatic end to her long rule.

Her government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of thousands of her political opponents.

“Finally, this moment, the monster is gone,” Mr Yunus said.

However, despite the groundswell of public goodwill towards him, Mr Yunus warned that his interim government faced difficult decisions ahead.

“The moment you start taking decisions, some people will like your decisions, some people will not like your decisions,” he said. “Obviously, that’s the way it works.”

Yunus made the comments during an off-the-record media briefing on Sunday night at a state building being used as a temporary seat of government.

His office agreed to their publication on Monday evening.

Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work in microfinance, credited with helping millions of Bangladeshis out of grinding poverty.

He took office as “chief adviser” to a caretaker administration — all fellow civilians bar a retired brigadier general.

He said last week that he wanted to hold elections “within a few months.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Around 18 million young Bangladeshis are out of work, as per government figures.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Bangladeshi student group has vowed on July 28 to resume protests that sparked a lethal police crackdown and nationwide unrest unless several of their leaders are released from custody.

“Last week’s violence killed at least 205 people”, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data, in one of the biggest upheavals of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure.

Also Read: Explained | On the student protests in Bangladesh

Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place more than a week after they were imposed and a police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters including at least half a dozen student leaders.

Members of Students Against Discrimination group, whose campaign against civil service job quotas precipitated the unrest, said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium.

The group’s chief Nahid Islam and others “should be freed and the cases against them must be withdrawn”, Abdul Hannan Masud, one of the coordinators of the anti-discrimination group, said in an online briefing on July 27.

Also Read: Bangladesh arrest total passes 2,500

Abdul, who did not disclose his location because he was in hiding from authorities, also demanded “visible actions” be taken against Government Ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of protesters.

“Otherwise, Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests from July 29,” he added.

Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were forcibly discharged from hospital on July 26 in the capital Dhaka and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

Earlier in the week Nahid Islam told AFP he was being treated at the hospital for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention and said he was in fear for his life.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on July 26 that the trio were taken into custody for their own safety but did not confirm if they had been formally arrested.

Police told AFP on July 28 that detectives had taken two others into custody, while a Students Against Discrimination activist told AFP that another person had been taken on July 28 morning.

“At least 9,000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began,” according to Prothom Alo, a Bangladesh’s newspaper.

Telecommunications Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told reporters the country’s mobile internet network would be restored later on July 28, eleven days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest.

“Fixed line broadband connections had already been restored on July 23 but the vast majority of Bangladesh’s 141 million internet users rely on their mobile devices to connect with the world,” according to the National telecoms regulator.

‘Job crisis’

Also Watch | Bangladesh protests: The trouble ahead for Hasina government

Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work — as per the government figures — the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.

In Focus podcast: What do the student protests signify for the Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh?

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League. The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs last week but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Dhaka:

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Asif Mahmud, Nahid Islam and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising recent street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 193 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

The trio were being treated for injuries that they said were caused by torture in earlier police custody at a hospital in the capital Dhaka.

“They took them from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. “The men were from the Detective Branch.”

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam’s elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)