Bangladesh quota protests: Curfew imposed, Army deployed, 105 killed

Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina-led government imposed a state wide curfew late Friday and ordered the deployment of armed personnel to preserve order after days of fatal riots over government job allocation. According to AFP, at least 105 people have been murdered in skirmishes around the country. More than 1,500 people have been hurt.

The curfew in Bangladesh was proclaimed by Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party, who stated that it was implemented to assist the civilian administration in maintaining order.

The judgment came hours after police and security personnel shot bullets, threw tear gas at demonstrators, and banned any meetings in Dhaka on Friday. Protestors, especially students, have been organizing demonstrations in Dhaka and other cities against the system of reservation in public sector positions, including that for relatives of war heroes who fought for the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971.

They claim that the system is unfair and favors followers of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party, which led the independence fight, and want it replaced with a merit-based system.

However, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defended the quota system, stating that veterans, regardless of party affiliation, deserve the highest level of honor for their efforts to the war.

The protest became ugly on Thursday, when rioters set fire to the country's public broadcaster. The violence forced officials to close the metro rail inside the capital, as well as the railway services to and from Dhaka. The government also ordered the closure of mobile internet networks in certain sections of the country. Schools and universities are closed indefinitely.

According to Reuters, some Bangladesh newspapers' websites failed to update and were inactive on social media on Friday.

News television channels and the state broadcaster BTV went off the air, while entertainment channels remained operational. Some of them featured statements blaming technical issues and promising to continue programming soon.

According to Reuters, the official websites of the central bank, prime minister's office, and police looked to have been hacked by a group calling itself "THE RESISTANCE".

"Operation Hunt Down, Stop Killing Students," read inscriptions sprayed across the sites, adding in red letters: "It's not a protest anymore, it's a war now."

Student protestors also attacked a jail in the Narsingdi region, freeing the inmates before setting it on fire.

"I don't know the number of inmates (freed), but it would be in the hundreds," a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, India declined to comment on the violent protests in Bangladesh on Friday, but claimed the approximately 15,000 Indian nationals living in the neighboring country were all "safe and sound".

"We see this as an internal matter of Bangladesh," external affairs ministry spokeswoman Randhir Jaiswal said at a routine media conference in response to questions about how India views the violent protests.

Over 300 Indian students infiltrated Bangladesh's northeastern borders on Friday, amid rising turmoil. Protests have erupted across the country, killing over 100 people, as students clashed with police forces and pro-government demonstrators over the controversial return of reservations in government positions.

For three weeks, the agitation has escalated, culminating on Monday with violent clashes at Dhaka University. The following day, six individuals were slain, causing the authorities to close all institutions nationwide. Indian students, predominantly seeking MBBS degrees in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Meghalaya, and Jammu and Kashmir, found themselves in the center of the mayhem.

The United States, a vociferous critic of Hasina's government, denounced the violence.

According to Bloomberg, "We need to make sure that any kind of freedom of expression is happening safely and people are free from violence," state department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters. "That's something we're continuing to pay close attention to."