Tag: 195 killed in Bangladesh

  • ‘Bangladesh is going to become the next Pakistan’; Sheikh Hasina’s son

    The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, resigned on Monday, fleeing the country as massive protests gripped the nation. The protests, that initially started as student protests against civil service job quotas metamorphosised into demands for Hasina to quit after more than 200 people were killed in violence.

    Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, reacted to the developments by saying, “Bangladesh is going to become the next Pakistan.”

    He also said that his mother is very disappointed in the people of Bangladesh “Because after all she’s done…after all the development.”

    Siddhant Sibbal, correspondent at Wion News, asked Sajeeb whether his mother planned to return to power, to which he replied, “No, absolutely not. She is 77-years-old. This was going to be her last term, and she was going to retire after this anyway.”

    The journalist asked Hasina’s son whether he had plans to join the politics of Bangladesh in future, to which he replied laughingly, “No. My family has been through this three times. After this, we are done. We are tired of saving Bangladesh. Bangladesh can handle its own problems now. It’s not our problem.”

  • 195 killed, 4000 arrested amid police crackdown in Bangladesh

    195 killed, 4000 arrested amid police crackdown in Bangladesh

    Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from the hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

    Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

    At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

    All three were patients at a hospital in the capital, Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

    “They took them from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky said. “The men were from the Detective Branch.”

    She added that she did not want to discharge the student leaders, but the police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

    The trio’s student group suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they wanted the reform of government job quotas but not “at the expense of so much blood.”

    The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

    Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

    Garment tycoon arrested

    Police said on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

    On Friday, police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh’s biggest garment factory enterprises.

    According to its website, the Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people, and the Daily Star newspaper estimated its annual turnover at $400 million last year.

    Dhaka Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the “anarchy, arson and vandalism” of last week.

    PM Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters on Friday, visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

    “Find those who were involved in this,” she said, according to state news agency BSS. “Coop­erate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation.”