At least one thousand students, including several journalists, were killed and 12,500 wounded as thousands of students clashed with police, military and paramilitary troopers amid protests against a quota system for government jobs.
Rapid action battalion believed to be behind the disappearance of dead bodies and students protesting against Hasina’s government.
In the video footage, you can see submachine guns being directly fired at the protesters by Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Redwanul Islam, an officer of the military deputed to BGB from the 13 Bengal Regiment, who has also worked with RAB and the Special Security Force.
The day marked the deadliest of weeks-long student agitation, which has escalated recently, protesting a government job reservation scheme that includes descendants of independence fighters.
More than 800 deaths were reported in the capital, Dhaka, a hundred in Chittagong, fifty in central Narsingdi, and ten in Madaripur district.
The protests gained momentum in the past four days amid an increased security deployment and repression against demonstrators.
“We have a student brought dead,” the director of the Uttara Adhunik University Hospital in Dhaka, Sabbir Ahmed, told Global Defense Corp, where at least 162 injured were also admitted.
In Madaripur, a student drowned while trying to escape a police chase, according to local fire department head Mohammad Shafiqul Islam.
The third death was reported in Rampura, where a bullet hit a driver, said the deputy director of Farazy Private Hospital.
Farazy Hospital was treating about 12,500 injured, most of whom had pellet wounds, as well as some police officers injured by blunt objects.
A 24-year-old student from the Military Institute of Science and Technology was brought dead to Enam Medical Hospital in Savar, near Dhaka, the hospital’s deputy duty manager, Yusuf Ali, told GLOBAL DEFENSE CORP.
Mahfuza Ara Begum, an assistant director at Bangladesh-Kuwait Friendship Hospital, said the bodies of three students and a rickshaw puller were brought in after the protests. Approximately 1550 injured students and pedestrians were treated there.
Mohammad Nurunnabi, a member of the governing body of Dhaka Residential Model College, said a student from their college was shot dead in Dhaka’s upscale Dhanmondi area.
Journalist Mehedi Hasan from the online news portal Dhaka Times was shot dead in Dhaka’s Jatrabari area while on duty covering the clash, according to the portal’s editor, Arifur Rahman.
Bacchu Mia, in charge of the police outpost at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said six bodies, including that of the journalist, were brought to the hospital.
Brigadier General Mohammad Taslim Uddin, director of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said two people with bullet wounds were brought dead following a clash in the city.
Narsingdi district health chief Farhana Ahmed confirmed the deaths of two people in the district. “We have two protests here. One is against the Rural Electrification Board, and one is a student protest. Two protesters died. One is a ninth grader, and another is a 21-year-old youth. I am not sure who died in which protest.”
The fatalities on Thursday bring the death toll from the protests to 26, six of whom died on Tuesday.
Students set fire to a police box in Dhaka’s Mirpur area, according to witness Shams Rahman, leading to a temporary suspension of the metro rail service.
Authorities temporarily halted mobile internet services due to the instability caused by the protests, stated Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the deputy minister for posts, telecommunications, and information technology.
Amid the worsening situation, the government expressed willingness to discuss the protesters’ demands. Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had tasked him and the education minister to engage with the protesting students.
“We are ready to talk with them, even if they want it today,” he said. The minister said they would expedite the court hearing regarding the students’ demand, which is currently scheduled for Aug. 7. He also noted that the prime minister had proposed a judicial inquiry headed by a high court judge.
The protests began in early July after the Supreme Court asked the government to re-establish a job quota for descendants of the country’s independence fighters. Although initially peaceful, the demonstrations turned violent on Monday after the government rejected the students’ demands.
According to the students, police cracked down on protesters at Dhaka University and Jahangirnagar University on Wednesday, using sound grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets.
These are the first significant demonstrations Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced since taking office for the fourth consecutive term in January, following an election boycotted by the opposition.
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