92 killed in anti-govt protests across Bangladesh

At least 92 people including 14 policemen were killed in clashes between protesters and members of law-enforcement agencies alongwith ruling party backed organisations across Bangladesh on Sunday, reported New Age, a leading English language newspaper published from Dhaka.

Of them, at least 22 including 13 police men were killed in Sirajganj, 11 in Dhaka, eight each in Feni and Lakshmipur, six in Narsingdi, five in Rangpur, four in Magura, three each in Pabna, Munshiganj, Kishoreganj, Sylhet, Sherpur, Bogura and Cumilla, one in Barishal, Jaipurhat, Habiganj, Cox’s Bazar and Bhola.

The deaths were confirmed by the district administrations, police, hospital officials and elected local government representatives till 9:30pm.

With Sunday’s 92 deaths, the death toll stood at 311 centering the student protest that turned violent from July 15.

Since the morning, protestors gathered in different important points in almost every districts and upazilas in the county while leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League and its associate bodies came to the streets while many of them in places were seen with firearms.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, including students, parents, teachers, day labourers, social workers and other professional bodies took to the streets in most of the places in Dhaka city.

Later, home ministry announced that it extended curfew for an indefinite period in Dhaka, all divisional cities, district towns, upazila towns, city corporation areas, municipal areas and industrial areas from 6:00pm on Sunday.

Earlier, the government imposed a curfew for an indefinite period with breaks and deployed military forces from July 20 amid country-wide violence centring around movement demanding reform in government jobs.

Besides, government declared a three-day public holiday across the country from Monday.

Mobile internet has been shut down again on Sunday, on the instructions of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

The commission has announced that the 4G network will remain off until further notice. During this period, only 2G services will be available for making calls.

Earlier, the government imposed a curfew for an indefinite period with breaks and deployed military forces from July 20 amid country-wide violence centring around movement demanding reform in government jobs.

On Sunday, users complained that they did not getting access to Meta platforms Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram since afternoon.

The government has urged all the students and their guardians to return home and stay safe, saying that extremist attacks were taking place in different places across the country.

Such a huge death in a single day in any particular movement was not reported in recent history of Bangladesh while at least 67 deaths were reported on July 19 during the student protest demanding quota reform in government jobs.

Protesters snatched the bodies of four people from Dhaka Medical College Hospital at around 6:00pm and went to the Central Shaheed Minar with the bodies and shouted various slogans.