Dhaka, Aug 9 (EFE).- The Bangladeshi capital struggled on Friday to return to normalcy on the first day of Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus heading the interim government after weeks of a deadly unrest led to a regime change.
Dhaka remains tense after violent clashes that claimed over 400 lives. Despite the ongoing tension, the absence of police on the streets has forced students to manage the capital’s chaotic traffic.
“Since there is no police, we have taken responsibility of managing traffic in recent days,” Sanjit Mahamood, a student at Siddheswari College, which is closed these days like the rest of the country’s educational establishments, told EFE.
The Banasree area, where Mahamood and a small group of students have directed traffic since morning, was the scene of strong clashes between protesters and security forces, in which EFE confirmed at least 15 deaths.
The small group of young people, armed with sticks to hit the side of buses and other vehicles not adhering to traffic rules, are part of a network of 100 students who are taking turns to direct the traffic, Mahamood added.
Concern about the lack of security in Dhaka, especially at night, is contrasted by apparent euphoria over the assumption of power on Thursday by the 84-year-old Yunus, who is heading a provisional government with 16 advisers that will govern the Asian country.
“All the students are happy, because he is a real idol for us,” Mahamood said, hoping that a return to normality would prevent further clashes in the streets.
Despite the recent appointment of a new police chief, Md. Moinul Islam, and an ultimatum by him for officers to return to duty, many of the security forces were still absent on Friday.
The textile factories, one of the key sectors in the Asian country, are also facing a lack of security as they begin to reopen.
“Most factories have reopened…and most paid the workers for the month of July” in the Konabari area, trade unionist Mohammed Ashrafuzzaman told EFE, “although there is no police.”
Weeks of student protests culminated on Monday with the resignation and flight to neighboring India of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who secured a fourth consecutive term in elections boycotted by the opposition in January.
What initially began as demonstrations against a quota system for government jobs that students considered unfair, in one of the poorest countries in the world, evolved into a movement to oust Hasina from power.
The brutal crackdown by security forces and the violence that ensued, with more than 400 dead and nearly 10,000 arrested, led students to go from demanding an apology from the now ex-prime minister to an end of the Hasina era. EFE
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