Quota Reform Movement: High Death Toll And Injuries Shake Up The Government

Angry young souls took bullets on the street, Staying to the cause and vowing not to retreat.

Bangladesh is still reeling from the shock of death of more than 200 people,most of whom are students, in the quota reform movement. Unofficial estimates put the number even higher. 20,000 plus people have been reported to be injured. More than 10,000 people have been arrested across the country. Internet has been resumed after being suspended for more than 10 days. Since the mobile internet is restored, Bangladeshis like me have a chance to get to know how heavy handedly authorities dealt with the protesters. During the curfew , TV ,radio and newspapers are only sources of information. On YouTube, video clips and news of the victims one by one started to emerge. I could not believe my eyes watching sheer scale of the movement and brutality sustained by the protesters. Some of them are really gruesome incidents and heartbreaking. Losses to the families are really heavy to bear. It is better to share some of them :

1. In one video, two teenage protesters are seen on the street. Seconds later the two fell to the street after being hit by sniper bullets. They are not shaking ,dead on the spot. Shotgun shot would left them injured and let them bleed to death. It was not a shotgun shot. Just a year ago , I watched a video on hog hunting in Germany. Where snipers killed wild hogs in reserve forest. The wild boars died instantly without shaking. Precise hit and caliber of the bullet ensured the instant death.
2. Another video shows protesters dancing on rooftop of Police and BGB APCs. Moments later a wounded boy, probably injured by gunshot, was thrown out of an APC and left to the street. The boy died there in vain,claims the video.
3. A protester is seen fleeing a spot riding on a rickshaw. A police vehicle hit the rickshaw from the rear and dragged it all the way. It was not known what happened to the protester.
4. Image of a Dhaka University student drenched in blood is seen in one image. She is one of the dead.
5. In one video, a student is seen distributing water bottles to fellow protesters. Later it is reported that he was a freelancer in fiverr and killed by gunshot wound in the head.
6. A news report by Deutche Velle says a college student was killed by Police. He was the son of a garments worker mother and a migrant father who worked days and nights to keep the economy moving. They are saving money for their son's higher education.
7. Another news report says a painter was shot dead. The only breadwinner borrowed hefty money to go abroad to improve the livelihoods of his family. Everything is lost.
8. An 11-year old boy killed inside his home on the sixth floor.
9. A photographer standing along with his friends was shot to death in Panthapath.

Law enforcement personnel also fell victims to the violence. A police inspector was brutally beaten to death by goons outside his home in Rampura. Just the day before, his Narayanganj office was vandalized. Another policeman was beaten to death on the rooftop of a house in Jatrabari. A paramilitary personnel was killed in a friendly fire.

Destructions of public property and deliberate attacks of key public installations hint that many miscreants infiltrated the movement with different agenda. Incendiary attacks and vandalizing property were deliberate moves to dilute the impact of so many killings ,it appears. Setu Bhaban, BRTA Bhaban, Bureau of Disaster Management,Department of Health,ICDDR,B and Metro Stations are all close to Dhaka cantonment. A video shot by an Indian medical student studying in Bangladesh shows miscreants wielding arms roaming freely in the streets in Mohakhali. Another CCTV footage shows miscreants without any resistance causing mayhem inside BRTA Bhaban. A news report reads miscreants destroyed all the CCTV cameras of the Setu Bhavan and Bureau building before setting them alight. How did random miscreants know precise location of CCTV cameras? While the miscreants were on a rampage in Mohakhali area ,they did not touch SKS tower,DOHS and Directorate General of Defense Procurement building. How could miscreants spare those if they were randomly targeting the buildings? Among the documents and laptops stolen or destroyed include those of elevated express way ,which is marred by cost overrun and delay and also a subject of investigation by EXIM Bank of China. More than 100 vehicles were torched in Setu Bhavan,BTV and Department of Health. Just few months ago, a minister gave scolding to ministry officials for not providing details of functioning vehicles and shirking by ad-hoc drivers. The practices cost the ministry a lot. Meanwhile, why would a cornered opposition provide opportunity to the ruling regime to bag opportunities from renovation and reconstruction of destroyed buildings? Who will be the beneficiary if 100,000 of commuters do not use the Mirpur-10 Metro station daily? I myself firsthand saw how miscreants vandalized tiles kept aside meant to renovate the footpath. This was not the work of student protesters. Such mayhem made ways for fresh procurement of the footpath tiles. Point is various quarters are using the movement to settle their own agenda.

The very Mirpur where police box and Metro station were set alight witnessed attacks on irregular police boxes before and blockade of key roads. Videos of news reports are still available.Back then political leadership was sympathetic to them. Who brought these people here and patronized them?

Indiscriminate shooting and killing gave this movement a momentum. And in Bangladeshi politics, dead student body is a highly sought after thing. If it is found in campus , then it is even better for the cause of the movement. In recent months, we saw how former senior officers of the security establishment engaged in corruption and got sanctions from the US. This tarnished the image of these institutions. Moreover, series of corruption reports of public servants also put the ruling regime into serious pressure. Student deaths and ongoing movement diverted the attention from those issues to present movement.

It is a good news that the ruling regime agreed on an independent probe and sought assistance from the UN in this matter. In my piece "Another Transition Period Ends",written in April, I also highlighted the need for a forensic lab under UN for independent probe(Link : https://hoquestake.blogspot.com/2024/04/another-transition-period-ends.html?m=1). I think this time UN investigation is needed to identify the units and individuals involved in indiscriminate shooting, to distinguish between death caused by law enforcement shooting and by other means, to probe incendiary attacks, to investigate whether prior steps are taken if information of such mayhem available to govt,to probe which one is targeted killing and which one is confrontational killing and to probe who was behind ordering live munitions. Only an independent probe could to some extent heal the losses.

In Narasingdi, around 900 prisoners including some terrorists escaped during a prison break following a deliberate attack on the prison. When some of them voluntarily returned to the prison a day later, the prison chief told them to wait as the authority is not ready yet to restore the damages. Later more than half of the prisoners handed themselves over to the authority,sensing lawlessness and unsecured lives outside the prison. This captures deterioration of law and order situation and rising cost of living in Bangladesh. Earlier a robber and hangman freed after serving jail terms had sustained brief spell of sickness and later perished in hospital within two years of his release. His sister told the press had her brother stayed in prison, he might have better chance to live few more years. At least in prison, one may get free food,accommodation and safety. This has become reality of Bangladesh.

This widespread lawlessness and hopelessness pushed many youths to take the streets. Who sustains this prolonged lawlessness across Bangladesh and thereby running a parallel administration? In this backdrop, we witness deliberate acts of vandalism during the movement. I ,to some extent ,do subscribe the analysis that draws parallel between violence in Manipur and vandalism during the movement in Bangladesh. Like Manipur violence, we witnessed here too targeted killing of people who tried to leave the country, arson attack, weak grip of law enforcement agencies during the vandalism and imposition of curfew. This type of incidents happened frequently in the past. Recent UN sanctions,UNODC report,geographic location of Bangladesh, nature of violence in recent years increasingly hint that vandalism took place in last few years in Bangladesh resembles to the incidents happening in Mexico, El Salvador. It is evident that ruling regime's governing grip becomes weaker. Instead of addressing the issues responsible for deteriorating law order condition,we witness how law enforcement agencies are used to subdue protests, including the recent one. Meanwhile, economy is bleeding. If greater political consensus is not reached soon, our economic recovery will be prolonged and it is the ordinary people who may bear the burden.

[Update: The last two paras are added on August 03,2024 at 10:53 Bangladesh Standard Time.]