Dhaka, Bangladesh: Student protesters stormed a prison and freed hundreds of inmates on Friday as police struggled to control the unrest, with large rallies occurring in the capital Dhaka despite a police ban on public gatherings.
The week’s unrest, which has claimed at least 64 lives according to AFP’s count of hospital-reported victims, poses an unprecedented challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government after 15 years in office. In the central district of Narsingdi, student protesters set the prison on fire after freeing its inmates. A police officer, speaking anonymously to AFP, mentioned that the number of freed inmates was in the hundreds.
In response, Dhaka’s police banned all public gatherings, a first since the protests began, to prevent further violence. “We’ve banned all rallies, processions, and public gatherings in Dhaka today,” police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP, emphasizing the need for public safety.
Despite the ban and an internet shutdown aimed at hindering rally organization, confrontations between police and protesters continued across the city of 20 million people. Sarwar Tushar, a protester who was injured by police, stated, “Our protest will continue. We want the immediate resignation of Sheikh Hasina. The government is responsible for the killings.”
On Friday, at least 19 people were killed in the city, according to a list from Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Over half of the week’s deaths were due to police fire, based on hospital staff accounts. On Thursday, protesters had torched and vandalized multiple police and government offices, including the state broadcaster Bangladesh Television’s headquarters, which remains offline.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain reported that around 100 policemen were injured and about 50 police booths were burned. Hossain also confirmed the arrest of Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, the joint secretary of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who faces hundreds of cases.
The protests, driven by demands to end a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, have highlighted longstanding grievances. Critics argue that the system benefits children of pro-government groups supporting Hasina, who has ruled since 2009 and secured her fourth consecutive election win in January without genuine opposition.
Rights groups accuse Hasina’s government of misusing state institutions to solidify its power and suppress dissent, including extrajudicial killings of opposition activists. The government ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police intensified efforts to restore order.
“This is an eruption of the simmering discontent of a youth population built over years due to economic and political disenfranchisement,” said Ali Riaz, a politics professor at Illinois State University, to AFP. “The job quotas became the symbol of a system which is rigged and stacked against them by the regime.”
Despite Hasina’s national address aimed at calming the unrest, students remain resolute in their protests. Nearly half of Bangladesh’s 64 districts reported clashes on Thursday, with over 700 people wounded, including 104 police officers and 30 journalists. London-based watchdog Netblocks reported that a “nation-scale” internet shutdown remained in effect a day after its imposition.
