Student road safety protests turn violent
BANGLADESH - The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has urged students to go home as police fired teargas during an eighth day of protests over road safety which have paralysed parts of Dhaka.
Students in their tens of thousands have brought parts of the capital to a standstill after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.
The unrest quickly spread beyond the capital. Authorities have shut down mobile internet services across swathes of the country, officials and local media said.
On Saturday the protests took a violent turn in Dhaka’s Jigatala neighbourhood, with more than 100 people injured as police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators. The violence continued on Sunday with police firing teargas into a large crowd marching toward an office of the ruling Awami League party, an AFP correspondent said. Hasina warned on yesterday that a “third party” could sabotage the protests and put the safety of demonstrators at risk. “That’s why I request all guardians and parents to keep their children at home. Whatever they have done is enough”, the Prime Minister said from her office. Some youngsters were rushed to hospital on Saturday after being attacked, allegedly by pro-government activists, witnesses said. Hasina’s warning came as protesters marched towards the scene of Saturday’s clashes chanting, “We want justice!” Police denied they fired rubber bullets or teargas at the protesters. However, hospital staff said dozens of people had been injured, some seriously, and injuries were consistent with rubber bullets. The Awami League has denied allegations that its officials beat up students. A senior telecoms official who asked for anonymity said: “The BTRC has slowed down the internet at the order of the government.” The move may be an attempt to limit the ability of students to mobilise or express growing online anger at how the government has handled the protests. Images and photos of the attacks on students allegedly by ruling party activists have flooded social media, prompting renewed anger. Bangladesh’s transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated and dangerous. As news of the teenagers’ deaths spread rapidly on social media they became a catalyst for an outpouring of anger against the government. An insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, fanned the flames last week. Khan questioned why there was such an uproar over the two Dhaka children but no reaction when 33 people were killed in an Indian buscrash the day before. There have been widespread social media demands for the minister’s resignation despite his subsequent apology.
(AFP)