Bangladesh PM surveys destruction as unrest recedes
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Streets in the capital Dhaka, a sprawling megacity of 20 million people, were choked with commuter traffic in the morning.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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DHAKA - Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept on July 25 as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that precipitated the disorder.
Last week’s violence
Thousands of troops are still patrolling cities and a nationwide internet shutdown remains largely in effect, but clashes have subsided since protest leaders announced a temporary halt to new demonstrations.
Ms Hasina, 76, spent the morning surveying the destruction in the capital Dhaka, where the commuter rail connecting the sprawling megacity of 20 million people was shut down after mob attacks on its network.
“Over 15 years, I’ve built this country,” she told reporters afterwards, in a condemnation of protesters for damaging city infrastructure. “What didn’t I do for the people?”
“Who has benefited from what we have done?” she added. “Do I ride on the metro? Does the government only ride? Do our ministers only ride? Or is it in fact the general public that rides?”
Pictures released by Ms Hasina’s office showed her flanked by an entourage and weeping at the sight of a vandalised metro station in an outlying Dhaka suburb. It is among several government buildings and dozens of police posts that were torched or vandalised during the height of last week’s unrest.
With calm returning to cities, the government ordered another relaxation to the curfew it had imposed at the height of the unrest, allowing free movement for seven hours between 10am and 5pm.
Streets in Dhaka were choked with commuter traffic in the morning, days after ferocious clashes between police and protesters had left them almost deserted.
Banks, government offices and the country’s economically vital garment factories had reopened
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina weeps while she visits a metro station in Mirpur that had been vandalised by students during the protests.
PHOTO: AFP
Student leaders were set to meet later on July 25 to decide whether or not to again extend their protest moratorium, which is due to expire on July 26.
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising July’s rallies, said it expected a number of concessions from the government.
Mr Asif Mahmud, one of the group’s coordinators, told AFP: “We demand an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the nation for the mass murder of students. We also want the sacking of the Home Minister and Education Minister.”
Mr Mahmud added that the estimated toll in the unrest was understated, with his group working on its own list of confirmed deaths.
Police have arrested at least 2,500 people
Protests began after the June reintroduction of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates, including nearly a third for descendants of veterans from Bangladesh’s independence war.
With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.
Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Ms Hasina’s Awami League.
The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs
Ms Hasina has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists. AFP
