[🇧🇩] In Bangladesh, A Violent 'Student Revolution' is on بنگلہ دیش میں انقلاب

[Saif]

Effort to observe state mourn is a farce

The count of death tolls has not been finished. Yet, thousands of protesters are being rounded up; injured students are leaving hospitals fearing detention, she said.

en.prothomalo.com

Effort to observe state mourn is a farce
Samina Luthfa

A movement started at public universities demanding reform to the quota system in government jobs, which later spread out to private universities, colleges and other educational institutions. Samina Luthfa, associate professor of sociology at Dhaka University, spoke to Prothom Alo's Monzurul Islam about students' participation in the movement, situation at the universities during the movement and what to do now.

Prothom Alo: The movement for a reform in the quota in government jobs was mainly revolving around the universities. Their movement was going on peacefully. Violence erupted with attacking the students at Dhaka University, followed by clashes, deployment of the police and Border Guard Bangladesh on the campus, as well as vacating the halls. How do you see these incidents? How would you evaluate the role of university administration?

Samina Luthfa: The quota reform protesters of 2024 were organised and peaceful from the beginning, but the Chhatra League (BCL) attacked the protesting students on campuses with bamboos, iron rods and so on, leaving scores of students injured.

Later, students were driven out of the halls by the evening with police, Rapid Action Battalion and BGB firing teargases and sound grenades. Hence, the outgoing students fell prey to the waiting goons and faced coercion on the roads.

The university administrators (vice chancellors, proctors and provosts) failed to protect the students completely instead of providing students with safety and creating opportunities for the students to leave the campuses safely.

If administrators of the universities have any shame they should have resigned.


Prothom Alo: To date, more than 200 people were reportedly killed in this protest and movement and several thousand people were injured. Deployment of the police, BGB and RAB did not work. Finally, the army was called and a curfew was imposed. How would you explain the entire situation?

Samina Luthfa: Usually, nondemocratic governments want to suppress any moment completely using state machinery because they fear any protest might oust them.

We have seen nothing over the past seven days other than the government's effort to gain mileage over political opponents. The count of death tolls has not been finished. Yet, thousands of protesters are being rounded up in harassing cases; injured students are leaving hospitals fearing detention and coordinators of the movement are being picked up and tortured.

We are stunned, surprised and aggrieved seeing the video clips of the incidents including firing shots from helicopters, firing on protesting civilians, shooting injured people at point blank, shooting pedestrians on heads from behind and shooting the youth hanging on the under-construction building to ensure his death.

This is no war situation; civilians were protesting. There is no example of applying such forces to quell a civilian movement in history.

The United Nations already expressed deep concern over the incidents; Bangladesh expatriates from various countries and global citizens condemned this killing spree.


Prothom Alo: Not only job seekers but people from other professions of society are involved in this movement. How do you see this movement as a sociologist? Is this giving signals for any change in our state, politics and society?

Samina Luthfa: In terms of sociology, the 2024 quota reform can be called a backlash protest that later turned into a mass upsurge. The government that has been in power for over 15 years by holding three consecutive questionable elections applied additional and illegal power using the BCL, police, BGB and RAB.

This movement cannot be pacified by deploying the army and imposing a curfew. Internet blackouts, block raids, mass arrests and harassment followed. Yet, people continue to protest.

Today, the movement turned into a mass upsurge and that shook the people around the world.

Prothom Alo: Allegations of violence, sabotage and destroying state properties have been brought up; cases were also filed. Several thousand people were rounded up over the past couple of days. Many of them including university students were put on remand. What do you think about the outcomes of these?

Samina Luthfa: The impact of the permanent damage to Bangladesh's economic, diplomatic and political images that occurred due to short-sightedness and imprudence will be deep and long-lasting.

The effort to observe the state mourning by the government standing on the dead bodies of hundreds of people is a complete farce, which the students rejected.

Citizens are feeling the power of the unity that is building between students and people against each falsification, farce and PR campaign of the government forces, but is the government feeling it?

If they do, the government must follow the path of peace by stopping oppression and suppression and must follow the path of seeking forgiveness by stopping falsification.

The government must follow the path of proper investigation, justice and humanity. Otherwise, they will not get back the trust of this new generation.

This is no longer limited to the quota reform movement. Now demand has arisen for the trial of the 'July killings'.​

 

[Bilal9]

Netra Report

Bangladesh student leaders call for UN action

From a secret hideout, three of Bangladesh's student protest leaders have called on the international community to hold members of the country's security forces accountable for what has been described as a massacre of students.

Netra News
July 27th 2024

The United Nations and the international community should act to put an end to Bangladesh's "ongoing massacre," a leader of Bangladesh's student protesters told journalists in a virtual press conference on 27th July.

"We urge the international community, influential countries, human rights groups, student bodies, and non-governmental organisations to take urgent steps to stop the brutal crackdown in Bangladesh," said Abdul Hannan Masud, a coordinator of the Students Against Discrimination, joined by Mahin Sarker and Rifat Rashid.

Drawing parallels with the Pakistani military's crackdown in what is now Bangladesh in 1971, they said members of the security forces and intelligence agencies are now hunting for student protesters in overnight raids, arresting students on mere suspicion, and detaining them in secret prisons.

"Members of these forces should be held accountable by the international community," Hannan added.

Citing the use of vehicles and helicopters featuring the UN insignia during the civil unrest, the three leaders appealed to the international body to ensure accountability for the deaths.

Their group, Students Against Discrimination, has compiled a list of 266 people — among many more unidentified — who they said were killed during the protests. Bangladesh's top newspaper, Prothom Alo, confirmed the death toll has surpassed 200.

The leaders said more than 70% of those deaths were ordinary students, according to their records.

They also threatened to resume their agitation from July 29th unless their demands — which include the release of imprisoned students, including top student leaders, the withdrawal of false charges, and visible punishments against government officials involved in the massacre, ranging from cabinet ministers to police constables — are met.

They also promised to set up a "health force" to document the killings and other casualties resulting from the government crackdown across towns and villages, and a separate "legal force" to provide legal assistance to those implicated in a barrage of government cases.

Local reports suggest that as many as 61,000 people, including many unnamed individuals, were implicated in criminal charges, while thousands have been arrested.

On July 28th, their planned programmes include writing and painting graffiti on public walls across the country in support of the students' demands.

In recent days, several student leaders have been forced into hiding after other top leaders, including Nahid Islam, were picked up by police detectives from a hospital on the outskirts of Dhaka. The home minister, Asaduzzaman Kamal, claimed police took them into custody to "save them" from unspecified threats.

Before they were formally detained, Nahid and at least one other student leader reappeared after what they described as an enforced disappearance by state agencies. They showed signs of physical torture they had suffered during their detention to the press.

Bangladeshi students on university campuses began a protest in mid-July against a quota system in public jobs that favours descendants of the country's registered freedom fighters, a small fraction of the population and a strong supporting block of the ruling Awami League.

Their protest soon transformed into civil unrest as security forces and Awami League members carried out deadly pogroms and a widespread crackdown, leading to hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries.

 

[Bilal9]

Netra Opinion

I'm a spokesperson for Bangladesh's student protesters. Here's our message to the world.

From a secret hideout, one of the coordinators of the student protest movement spoke to Netra News to send out an appeal to the world.

Abdul Hannan Masud
July 28th 2024

A scene from Bangladesh protests on 21st July 2024. Photo: Netra News​

On June 5th 2024, Bangladesh's student community took to the streets to protest the reinstatement of the discriminatory quota-based recruitment system for government jobs in Bangladesh. However, the government went on to politicise the movement, labelling the protesters as anti-state traitors before considering their demands.

Protesters soon began receiving threats from cabinet ministers and ruling party leaders. As a consequence of their incitement, on July 15th, the Chhatra League and Jubo League carried out a brutal attack on students at Dhaka University. Female students, pedestrians, and even injured students in hospital were not spared from the attack.

Following this, a joint operation by the police, BGB, RAB, and the army—accompanied by a nationwide digital crackdown blocking the internet—led to a massacre in Bangladesh.

Heavy weaponry such as AK-47s and SKS snipers were used against innocent and unarmed civilians, a blatant violation of human rights and crimes against humanity.

Pedestrians, women, and children in their homes lost their lives alongside the protesters due to indiscriminate firing from RAB helicopters on direct orders from the government. An atmosphere of fear was imposed on the people through enforced disappearances, murders, and mass arrests. Thousands of innocent people have been arrested under false charges and political labelling. We strongly condemn this.

Joint raids by the police, RAB, BGB, and the army are still ongoing in residential areas, with common students and innocent people being arrested and harassed. Meanwhile, the police engaged in bribery schemes — detaining innocent people and then releasing them in exchange for large sums of money. The people of Bangladesh are living in uncertainty, with no security of life and no hope of justice.

From our history, we fear that this time, too, the brutal massacre of students will not be properly investigated. I presume that the judge in charge of the investigation will work to protect the government's agenda and interests.

Under these circumstances, we are appealing to the United Nations for a fair investigation.

We want an impartial investigation into this murder. Reviewing past history, we see that whenever any state-backed body investigates, the government abuses its power to influence the investigation. Hence, we expect a proper investigation of this murder under the supervision of the United Nations.

Our question to the UN is, why and under which provision were military vehicles and equipment intended for peacekeeping missions used on students and civilians? Isn't this an abuse of the UN? Isn't it against the principles of the United Nations?

When the people of this country were being killed with weapons bearing the United Nations logo, the internet was completely shut down. The ordinary people of the country had the impression that they were being targeted as if by a UN peacekeeping mission.

We expect a clear explanation from the United Nations in this regard as soon as possible.

Our expectations from the international community: We, the common students and the young generation of Bangladesh, are going through a difficult time. First, we have been brutally massacred, and countless students have been injured. Now, false charges are being pressed against us. Students are victims of enforced disappearances, torture, and mass arrests.

We, the common students, are living with intense insecurity. Right now, we are seeking international intervention to resolve this situation.

We expect human rights organisations to recognise that Bangladesh is experiencing severe human rights violations. Women, children, elderly people, and young people are not safe inside or outside. Human rights have been violated, and crimes against humanity have been committed with lethal weapons. Students are being forcefully disappeared, murdered, and tortured, with the direct support of government forces and pro-government terrorists.

The current government is creating an atmosphere of fear and imposing curfews, violating people's fundamental rights. In this context, we expect you, the human rights organisations, to monitor the situation in Bangladesh closely and protect the innocent people, including the common students.

We have expectations from our diaspora, too. Whenever we, the common students of Bangladesh, take to the streets with a rational demand, you support us. So, as always, we hope you will provide us with more support at this critical juncture.●

Abdul Hannan Masud is one of the dozens of coordinators of Students Against Discrimination, a platform for protesting students in Bangladesh. He has assumed a leadership role after other senior leaders were taken into custody by the police. The above text is an abridged version of a video statement given to Netra News. The statement was edited for clarity.

 

[Bilal9]

Netra Opinion

Bangladesh's new rebel heroes

Student protesters in Bangladesh's public imagination often assume heroic roles that can mobilise political transformation.

Nazia Hussein
July 29th 2024

Illustration: Netra News​

Students in Bangladesh started protesting for public jobs to be allocated based on merit — as opposed to quotas, especially those reserved for descendants of war veterans — first in 2008, and then again in 2013 and 2018. The quota system was dismantled in 2018 but reinstated by a High Court judgement in June 2024, instigating the current wave of protests.

Student uprisings have played a key role in Bangladesh's history, with figures such as Rafique, Salam, Barkat, Jabbar, and Shafiur celebrated as rebel heroes, who died facing police fire on 21st February 1952 while demanding recognition of Bangla as an official language of the then-Pakistan.

In the current quota reform protests, images of students such as Abu Sayed, who stood fearless with arms outstretched before being shot by the police, are going viral on social media. These images illuminate rebellion against oppressive power as a form of radical politics instigating social change.

By studying the recent student protests in Bangladesh as a powerful instrument of South Asia's political imagination, we can understand how the dynamics between power and rebellion create new heroes and influence social transformation.

[HR=3][/HR]
The act of rebellion goes beyond refusing to stay silent in the face of rights violations; rebels take a stand above all else, proclaiming it preferable to the status quo, even to life itself. The cause for rebellion then becomes a 'supreme good,' a refusal to compromise, a zero-sum game: it's all or nothing.

Thus, Abu Sayed's figure looms large in public consciousness as a rebel who sacrifices his life to the cause of 'good'. As a last resort, he accepts death itself rather than being denied the rights that represent true freedom for many students like himself — believing it is 'better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees.' (Camus, 1951).

Student protesters hold powerful cultural and social positions in Bangladesh and can assume a heroic role that has the potential to mobilise political transformation. Versions of Abu Sayed's image, standing with arms outstretched when he was shot, are going viral on social media and news outlets. These include a sketch of his heroic stand by Kausik Sarker, an image of him in front of Bangladesh's flag denoting his sacrifice for the country, and the same image accompanied by lines from Bangladesh's national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's poem "The Rebel."

Much like the image of Martin Luther King delivering the "I Have a Dream" speech or the raised fist for the Black Lives Matter movement, Abu Sayed's image has come to symbolise an empowered rebel standing against authority. He symbolically represents the marginalised class within a capitalist power structure run by upper-class elites.

Female students, too, have taken a central role in the movement.

The images of young women in Bangladesh's protests have shifted from photographs of a blood-drenched, beaten, and injured young woman to crowds of female students marching and chanting slogans.

Schoolgirls were seen chanting for quota reform, and some women use innovative tactics like mixing chilli powder with water to spray on those who attack them during protests.

These scenes are reminiscent of the protests of Iranian women against the Islamic Revolution and the recent Citizenship Law protests in India, where women were at the frontlines fighting for Muslims in India.

But these protests are less an iconography of female empowerment and more a shameful reminder of the failure of those perceived as more powerful than these young women, demonstrating that they are capable of fighting for their rights despite the violence against them.

[HR=3][/HR]
With rebellion, awareness is born.

The heroic iconography of Abu Sayed and the image of Tonnii Akhter, a young woman drenched in blood, has proved influential in mobilising young people's political power in Bangladesh. These images reaffirm that being a rebel is a precondition for survival or living a life worth living for these young people.

They are so powerful that even the diaspora jumped into action. Bangladeshi communities abroad have been carrying out peaceful demonstrations, discussions, teach-ins, and petitions in solidarity with Bangladeshi students in various parts of the world.

It is the student rebels' anger that has the power to start a tsunami against injustice, and when the water rages, the landscape must change.

Dr. Nazia Hussein is a senior lecturer at the School of Sociology, Politics, and International Studies at the University of Bristol, UK.

 

[Bilal9]

Netra Opinion

The anti-dictatorship movement should be carried forward in the diaspora as well

A united diaspora can also be a powerful tool against Bangladesh's dictatorship.

Shammi Haque
July 29th 2024

Embellishment: Netra News​

Not being able to communicate with family for just a few days, we expatriates were worried. But at least 209 families in Bangladesh will never see their loved ones again. Many families may still not know where their loved one's body lies — if even buried at all.

The protesting innocent boys are being shot one by one. Their bodies lay frozen on the ground. A friend is still trying to pull him aside. But the shooting does not stop. This scene is familiar to us: maybe seen in a movie or Netflix series. But we don't want to believe that this scenario will materialize — on the streets of Dhaka, 53 years after independence. I have been hoping for a fact checker to come and say that these videos are fake. Let any reliable media say these are rumours. But as I write this article, 209 people have been killed, thousands injured. There is a massive arrest.

Sitting in the city of Berlin, Germany, I am watching this. Summer is here now. Temperature 26 degrees Celsius; The sun is shining. Everyone waits for this time all year. Something is happening all around. Some time ago a friend called and asked when and where to meet at Pride. And just seven thousand kilometers from Berlin, where I was born, where I grew up, the death toll is increasing. People are losing their lives while exercising their fundamental rights of democracy, in peaceful agitation, in just demands for quota reform.

But this joy of Berlin, this freedom why I regret?

According to the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Foreign Employment, there are about 8 million Bangladeshi expatriates living around the world. Do we all feel that way? Maybe not everyone. Living in a democratic country, getting social security, getting active support from the administration against any wrongdoing or crime. Isn't this privilege oppressing us right now? But be it oppression and be it responsibility — we diaspora can use our privilege right now to stand by this movement.

Remember September 2022? In Iran, a young woman named Zina Mahsa Amini was arrested for not wearing hijab properly. His death later sparked nationwide protests. A coup was born in Iran. As a result, the Internet is often shut down in the country. Nevertheless, the Iranian diaspora carried the movement forward. The government is under international pressure.

Internet blackouts are a major tool of authoritarian governments in the modern era. Internet shutdown will happen again in Bangladesh. But if even 20 lakhs out of 80 lakh expatriates can unite and support this movement today, it will be a powerful tool against the tyranny of Bangladesh.

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At this time I am reminded of the days of Shahbagh. We really believed that Bangladesh would change. But our dreams slowly faded away. Whenever the young generation protested in the last 12 years, the Awami League first tried to use it for their own interests. If not, the movement was suppressed. And as a shield, the government has repeatedly peddled the old rhetoric: There is no democratic or secular alternative to the Awami League. But today's quota movement has created a leak in that slope. This movement is no longer limited to quotas; Now the protestors demand a democratic Bangladesh.

This generation is politically aware; They have never seen any government other than this one. They are tired, frustrated and lost comrades. This generation cannot be suppressed by old tricks. Their demands are clear: true democracy and fairness. Bringing down the army, shutting down the internet, filing lawsuits against thousands of people will no longer work.

When I was a child, I was thrilled to see Sheikh Hasina on TV, and still am. But there is a difference between these shivers; It was respect then, now fear. What happened to her family, her return from exile, her political struggles—and she's a woman. The longest-serving person in power in Bangladesh's history is a woman — as a feminist, that should have been a point of pride for me. But this is a shame. Because tyranny does not require a specific gender.

Are we going to see the brutal consequences of this power?

I personally have a different relationship with the word power. Growing up with a single mother without a father in a lower middle class family, I can understand firsthand the struggle of a life of powerlessness and helplessness.

So from childhood I had a tendency to observe the powerful. Famous German journalist Bettina Gauss wrote, "Je weniger Macht jemand hat, desto mehr weiß sie oder er über die Mächtigen." The less power he has, the more he knows about the powerful. The middle class and low income people of Bangladesh know the most about the powerful. Elites don't matter in a corrupt country. Therefore, the number of children of upper class families in this movement may be less.

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In Bangladesh, expatriates are already organizing and working, regardless of party affiliation, amid the internet blackout. Efforts are underway to organize the movement abroad and inform the international media.

In the eyes of the international media, Bangladesh does not carry any special importance. Nothing Bangladesh-related matters to them except ready-made clothes and climate change. But in spite of this, news about this movement of Bangladesh is being published seriously in newspapers of different languages from New York Times to European countries.

The print edition of Tagesspiegel, a leading German daily, headlined, "Deadly silence in Bangladesh." The New York Times wrote, "The repression of an inflexible leader has led to disaster in Bangladesh." Newspapers which have never written about Bangladesh, also have the title Bangladesh movement.

Berlin's independence is suffering itself greatly these days. That's why sometimes feel selfish? Yes, I think — so maybe try to do something from abroad. But trying to do something to comfort your own mind? To be better yourself? If so, at this point the diaspora's efforts could become a powerful part of the rebellion. ●

Shammi Haque is a Bangladeshi journalist working in German media.

 

[Bilal9]

News footage of student demonstrations around Bangladesh from last couple of days, which show no signs of abatement. Police in one case beat up journalists covering the news. Heart-wrenching visuals of parents mourning the death of innocent bystander students shot to death by mysterious assailants. If this continues, it may be argued that the regime has to take definite responsibility to find and punish perpetrators and assailants.



News outline and analysis in Bengali by Environmental and apolitical analyst Rizwana Hasan in Jamuna TV

 

[Bilal9]

 

[Bilal9]

Apolitical Law Professor Asif Nazrul states his horror on the student oppression tactics and children killed by stray bullets.