Bangladeshi students demonstrated again today, after the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ignored an ultimatum to release the leaders of the student movement and to apologize for the deaths in the recent riots.
Several demonstrations have been taking place in the country's capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere in Bangladesh since this morning, but on a smaller scale than those recorded at the beginning of the month.
Police used batons to disperse a demonstration on the outskirts of the capital, arresting at least 20 people, reports the largest Bengali daily, Prothom Alo.
Security forces have been heavily mobilized in Dhaka, a megalopolis of 20 million inhabitants, to prevent further gatherings.
The recent student protests against civil service job quotas led to the deaths of at least 205 people, including several policemen, according to a count by the France-Presse news agency (AFP) organised on the basis of data from the police and local hospitals.
The clashes were among the worst in 15 years of Sheikh Hasina's leadership and the government's efforts to restore order included sending the army into the streets, cutting off internet access and imposing a curfew.
Police arrested at least six leaders of Students Against Discrimination, the movement that organised the first demonstrations.
"The government continues to show complete insensitivity towards our movement. We are calling for nationwide demonstrations and we urge all Bangladeshis to stand in solidarity with our demands and join our movement," Abdul Kader, one of the coordinators of the student movement, said in a statement today.
Students Against Discrimination had pledged to end a one-week moratorium on demonstrations if the police did not release its leaders by the evening of Sunday, July 28.
The group also demanded a public apology from Hasina for the "massacre of students", the resignation of several ministers and the reopening of schools and universities closed at the height of the crisis.
At least 9,000 people have been arrested across Bangladesh since the unrest began, according to Prothom Alo.
The army continues to patrol urban areas, and a nationwide curfew remains in place, although this has been gradually relaxed since early last week.
Mobile internet was restored on Sunday, 11 days after a nationwide blackout imposed at the height of the unrest.
“The situation is returning to normal thanks to the appropriate measures taken by the government and the people,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday, declaring Tuesday a day of national mourning in memory of those killed in the unrest.
The protests began after the reintroduction in June of a system that reserved more than half of civil service jobs for select candidates, including nearly a third for descendants of veterans of Bangladesh’s war of independence.
With about 18 million young people unemployed, according to government figures, the move deeply offended graduates.
Critics see the quotas as a way of reserving civil service jobs for those close to the prime minister’s Awami League party.
Just over a week ago, the Supreme Court reduced the number of such reserved jobs, but did not respond to protesters’ demands that the recruitment system be scrapped altogether.
Sheikh Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh continuously since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January in a closely contested election boycotted by the opposition.
Her government has been accused by human rights groups of using state institutions to consolidate its grip on power and suppress dissent, particularly through extrajudicial killings of opposition activists.
The authorities have accused opposition parties of diverting demonstrations to provoke unrest. On Sunday, Bangladesh's home minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, told reporters that security forces had acted with restraint but had been "forced to open fire" to defend government buildings.
