In Bangladesh, demonstrators have taken to the streets, calling for justice for the over 200 persons who lost their lives in student-led protests last month over government job quotas.
Large-scale demonstrations were held on Saturday in response to a nationwide appeal by student leaders for civil disobedience until the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned.
Saturday’s protest rallies were largely peaceful, as processions marched toward the central Shaheed Minar, a monument to people killed in 1952 during an agitation demanding that the then-ruling Pakistani government recognize Bengali as a state language, according to Associated Press. Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until it won independence in 1971 through an India-aided bloody war.
Troop deployments briefly restored order but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this week ahead of an all-out non-cooperation movement aimed at paralyzing the government planned to begin on Sunday.
Students Against Discrimination — the group responsible for organising the initial protests — rejected an offer for dialogue with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier in the day before announcing their agitation would continue until the premier and her government stepped down.
“She (Hasina) must resign and she must face trial,” Nahid Islam, the group’s leader, said while addressing thousands of protesters at Shaheed Minar, according to a report by AFP.
Calling for a non-cooperation campaign, Students Against Discrimination has reportedly asked their compatriots to stop paying taxes and utility bills from Sunday to pile pressure on the government. As per the AFP report, they have also asked government workers and labourers working in Bangladesh’s economically vital garment factories to go on strike.
“She must go because we don’t need this authoritarian government,” Nijhum Yasmin, 20, told AFP.
Evoking the historical civil disobedience campaign, spearheaded by Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, Yasmin said, “Did we liberate the country to see our brothers and sisters shot dead by this regime?”
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