By Azad Majumder
Dhaka, July 18 (EFE).- At least 19 people, including a journalist, were killed and hundreds wounded on Thursday as thousands of students clashed with police and paramilitary troopers amid protests against a quota system for government jobs.
The day marked the deadliest of weeks-long student agitation, which have escalated recently, protesting a government job reservation scheme that includes descendants of independence fighters.
Fourteen deaths were reported in the capital, Dhaka, two in Chittagong, two in central Narsingdi, and one 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 EFE, where at least 62 injured were also itted.
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 driver was hit by a bullet, said the deputy director of Farazy Private Hospital.
Farazy hospital was treating about 400 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 EFE.
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 150 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 Rural Electrification Board and one student protest. Two protesters died. One is a ninth grader and another is 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, leading to a temporary suspension of Dhaka’s metro rail service, according to Shams Rahman, a witness.
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 he and the education minister had been tasked by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to engage with the protesting students.
“We are ready to talk with them, even if they want it today,” he said. The minister sakid they would expedite the court hearing regarding the students’ demand, which is currently scheduled for Aug. 7. He also noted that the prime minister has 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’ demand.
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 major demonstrations Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced since taking office for the fourth consecutive term in January, following an election boycotted by the opposition. EFE
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