Power was cut across the country and the government blocked mobile internet and social media as student protests continued to escalate into violent clashes with police. When people woke up on Friday morning, TV news channels were out of action after protesters stormed the state broadcaster’s headquarters in Dhaka and set it on fire, and several news websites were down.
A group of protesters stormed a prison in Narsingdi, a district north of the capital, and freed prisoners before setting the facility on fire. Hundreds of prisoners were freed, according to AFP. Key government websites, including those of the central bank, police and the prime minister’s office, were also apparently hacked by the student hacker group. A message posted on the prime minister’s office website on Friday called for an end to the killing of students, saying: “This is no longer a protest. This is now a war.” Another message posted on the site read: “The government has cut off the internet to silence us and hide its actions. We must be aware of what is happening on the ground.”
Photo: Abu SUFIAN JEWEL / AFP
The protests began in early July on university campuses, with students demanding an end to the quota system that reserves 30 per cent of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. Protesters say the policy is unfair and discriminatory, as it leaves young people vying for jobs during an economic downturn and instead benefits members of the ruling Awami League party, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the Guardian reports.
Witnesses say the protests have begun to take on a much broader anti-government tone against Hasina and her party, with students calling her an “authoritarian dictator” and demanding her resignation. Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and has presided over a sweeping, brutal crackdown on political opponents and critics, while corruption is rampant. Prominent opposition figures are routinely targeted by paramilitary violence and disappear, and tens of thousands of political opponents have been jailed. She won a fifth term in office in January in elections widely documented by observers as being largely rigged. Clashes between heavily armed riot police and protesters, many armed with batons and bricks, have spread across the country, with cars torched in the streets and thousands injured.
Hasina, 76, ordered all universities and colleges to close indefinitely after the clashes. In a speech on Wednesday night, she condemned the “murder” of students killed during the protests and promised justice, telling students to wait for a forthcoming Supreme Court ruling on the quota system, but that did little to quell the unrest.
Source: rg.ru
