DHAKA, Bangladesh — Life in the Bangladeshi capital ground to a halt Saturday morning as the government enforced a curfew to quell violent clashes between student protesters and security forces. Shops and businesses were closed and roads were largely empty in the typically congested city of 10 million people, save for military and paramilitary personnel.
According to a Washington Post tally of hospital and police reports, at least 110 people have been killed in the demonstrations over the past four days, most of them in Dhaka. Hundreds more have been wounded. Mohammed Abir, a medical examiner at the morgue at Dhaka Medical College hospital, said he received 33 bodies Friday evening.
The U.N. humans rights chief, Volker Türk, on Friday called the violence “shocking and unacceptable” and urged restraint. There needs to be “impartial, prompt and exhaustive investigations” into the attacks against students, he said, adding that he was especially worried about the actions of the government’s paramilitary police units, “which have long track records of violations.”
Dhaka and several other major Bangladeshi cities have been engulfed this past week by protests launched in opposition to a new governmental policy of reserving a portion of civil service jobs for specific groups, including descendants of the nation’s freedom fighters. The quota system, seen as unfair, has fueled explosive anger toward the ruling government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which has deployed increasingly draconian methods to quell the unrest.
Bangladeshi security forces have used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters. Late Friday night, the government imposed a nationwide curfew, ordering people to stay home on Saturday. There would be a two-hour window for public movement from noon to 2 p.m., officials said.
Internet services have been shut down and mobile services disrupted in a near-total “blackout” that has left much of the country’s 170 million people unreachable. Some television news channels have gone off air, and banks have reported some disruptions in operations, according to Bangladeshi media.
Calls to the Bangladeshi Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, have gone unanswered.
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Bangladeshi officials say they have slowed internet connectivity to stop the spread of misinformation. But in a letter, a coalition of more than 300 digital rights groups said it is likely to have the opposite effect by reducing people’s ability to counteract misinformation and spurring panic. “Government agencies have a duty to ensure that people can access open, secure, and unrestricted internet when they need it the most,” the coalition wrote.
Tan reported from Singapore.
