The Dark Turn of Events

15th July, 2024

The General Secretary of Awami League and the Roads and Highway Minister Obayedul Quader in a meeting says “The BCL will take care of campus matters”. The next day the BCL attacked the protesters with wooden sticks and construction rods. They hit female students in broad daylight. Students bleeding from their heads are seen going off campus in a horrific video. Videos of students getting brutally beaten up across the campus surface all across social media. Every university and college across the country revolts, especially the residential universities. BCL members brutally beat up residential students from Jahangirnagar University at night, the students went to the VC’s residence for protection the VC didn’t open his door for the students BCL came into the VC’s house and they started beating the students seeking shelter. The same instances happen across different residential campuses.

16th July, 2024

Students from all across the country, from universities to schools, take to the streets to protest the brutal beatings. Police and RAB are deployed to control the situation, protesters clash with the police and Awami League party members, 7 people die across different parts of the country, and hundreds are injured. Video of a police shooting and killing Abu Sayeed is seen across social media. This fuels the situation to a greater extent. The halls of the University of Dhaka roar in protest, throwing the BCL members out of their hall rooms. Pictures of luxurious hall rooms are spread across social media of political leaders in these halls. Videos of female student leaders of BCL are seen dragged out of halls by the hair. The UGC (University Grants Commission) asks all residential students to vacate the halls the next day within 6 in the evening.

17th July, 2024

In the morning, things are very tense at the University of Dhaka. Police and the paramilitary force BGB (Border Guard of Bangladesh) are deployed inside the campus. Students refuse to leave their halls and demand justice for the murders that took place on the 16th. Police shoot tear shells into the halls to empty them. Students are beaten out of their halls and sent to their homes in an attempt to destabilize the movement. BNP and Ganatantra Mancha hold an Absentee funeral prayer at the Baitul Mukarram for the 7 deaths where police attacked them and a clash broke out. Several opposition leaders and activists were injured and detained during the incident. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina comes on television to address the nation and says she’s sorry for the families that lost their members. Tells the student to go back to class and parents to keep their kids out of the protest. This does not bode well with the students. Later that night a toll plaza of Mayor Hanif Flyover was burned down by protesters at Jatrabari, observing the escalation the Ministry of Education shut down all schools and colleges until further notice.

18th July, 2024

Any decision regarding closing public universities, especially the University of Dhaka comes from the syndicate, and not from the UGC nor have they ever intervened in the regular activities. This was a first and the protesters decided not to oblige. After UGC decided to close the public universities across the country and forcefully vacate the residential halls to destabilize the movement, the students declared a “Complete Shutdown” across the country on 18th July which took a dark and tragic turn. The government shut down the 3G and 4G mobile networks around 8 AM, so students who were protesting on the street could not use the internet to post or gather people by using social media platforms; only the broadband lines worked throughout the day. Students from private universities and colleges took the lead in the movement that day. They decided to take the procession to Shahbag at the University of Dhaka from their respective campus areas. One particular video took over social media where the police started attacking protestors from BRAC University in front of the university campus around 11 AM. Students rushed into the university premises, and the authorities closed the gates. The police did not stop there and started throwing tear shells and firing rubber bullets inside the building from the closed gates. Clashes broke out in many places as the law enforcement agencies, including the Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), BCL, and AL’s youth front Jubo League started a brutal crackdown on the movement by shooting live rounds and raining tear shells on the protestors. This infuriated the students to retaliate against police with brickbats, turning areas into war zones, especially in the capital. Dhaka became a battleground by noon. Protesters in the Mirpur area set the police box in Mirpur-10 as the local ruling party men, Juba League, and BCL attacked them continuously with the support of the police. This forced the operation of the metro rail train suspended. An 11th grader of Dhaka Residential Model College was killed in a clash in Dhanmondi-27 sustaining a bullet injury on his chest. Many government establishments, including Bangladesh Television Bhaban in the capital’s Rampura, police stations, were vandalized and some were set on fire. Fire Service and Civil Defence received reports of 25 incidents of fires across the country from July 17 to 18 until 7 PM. Besides Dhaka, students also blocked roads in other cities like Chittagong, Khulna, Barisal, and more. Around 2 PM, the police surrendered to the students at the University of Barishal and allowed them to continue their protest. According to Prothom Alo, 27 people were killed in the clashes across the nation including at least 11 students, 1 journalist, 2 rickshaw pullers, and 1 pedestrian. Thousands of people were left injured. Obayedul Quader stated at noon that the movement had been hijacked from the students by BNP-Jamat and they are taking advantage of this situation. In his words, this situation has to be tackled in the street. As the nationwide blockade “Complete Shutdown” escalated into a state of political instability and war among the protesters, law enforcement agencies government supporting fronts, Law Minister Anisul Huq announced with a tone of desperation that the government was ready to meet with the protesters at any time, even immediately. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina instructed the law minister to expedite the hearing on an appeal against the quota system, originally scheduled for August 7, to address students’ demands promptly. Anisul Huq, along with Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, has been appointed as the chief negotiator for discussions with the protesters. The government has welcomed the protesters’ willingness to negotiate while they continue their demonstrations. The law ministry also proposed Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman as the head of a judicial probe committee to investigate the deaths during the quota reform protests over the past few days. However, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud denied the government’s offer for dialogue as they resorted to violence and killed innocent students. They now want justice for the death of the students and demand that the government take responsibility for the killings. Asif Mahmud, one of the core coordinators of the movement stated to the media that the blockade would be continued until the next day and requested every mosque to hold absentee funeral prayers for the students who were killed by the police and other men of the supporting regime. The government deployed 229 platoons of BGB to tackle the situation but it turned out to get worse leaving the city burning. Around 8 PM the whole nation faced an “Internet blackout” for the first time, due to an arson attack on Mohakhali’s data center located in Dhaka crippled the country’s entire Internet infrastructure according to the state minister of Post, Communication, and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak, leaving the citizens in fear and terror about the whole situation.

19th July, 2024

Nationwide Internet blackout continued another day as the blockade from the Anti-discrimination Students’ Movement. On 19th July, BNP and Ganatantra Mancha came forward to hold a procession protesting the law enforcement agencies’ brutality against the protesters. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police(DMP) banned rallies on Friday the 19th until further notice. However, DMP’s decision changed around noon following the request from both the ruling party and BNP’s request. The decision later said the processions and rallies could be held for the venues in front of the central offices of AL and BNP, but for the rest of the city would remain banned. Before the decision was made, DMP charged BNP’s precession and took Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the senior joint secretary of BNP, into custody. Clashes between police and protestors occurred again in some of the battlegrounds from yesterday including Mohammadpur, Badda, Mirpur, Rampura, and Jatrabari. Mirpur-10 and Kazipara metro rail station were vandalized amid the clashes. RAB and Bangladesh Army’s helicopters hovered over the capital throwing tear shells and sound grenades into the clashing areas as the smoke were rising from the battlegrounds. Police attacked the procession from the Gantantra Mancha lobbing sound grenades, teargas, and charged batons to disburse the movement, causing more than 25 leaders and activists wounded. At least 103 people died in violent clashes over three days, with 44 deaths in Dhaka alone on Friday. The clashes on Friday not only took the lives of the protestors, law enforcement agencies, or the men of the government supporting parties, it also took the lives of people who were not involved in this at all. The violent firing from the police took the lives of 3 innocent children. An 11-year-old boy went to close the window after the tear gas entered his home and was shot dead. The stray bullet also took the life of a 6-year-old girl who went to her rooftop to play. Another 4-year-old boy died on his balcony. Hospitals in Dhaka and other cities reported numerous deaths and injuries, struggling to manage the influx. During this chaos, the Narsingdi central jail was broken into by a mob, the security guards failed to control the situation as their weapons were taken from them by the outnumbered crowd. 826 convicts escaped from the prison, including 9 convicted terrorists. The raiders looted 85 weapons from the armory and 8150 rounds of live ammunition. Sarjis Islam, one of the core coordinators accompanied by two coordinators and a co-coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement, met with Law Minister Anisul Huq, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, and State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat at the state guest house Padma. During this meeting, the Anti-Quota protestors put forward 9 point demands and said to continue the shutdown until the government meets all of them.

The Demands were:

1. The prime minister must accept responsibility for the mass killings of students and publicly apologize.2. The home minister and the road, transport, and bridges minister must resign from their [cabinet] positions and the party.3. Police officers present at the sites where students were killed must be sacked.4. Vice Chancellors of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar, and Rajshahi universities must resign.5. The police and goons who attacked the students and those who instigated the attacks must be brought to justice.6. Families of the killed and injured must be compensated. 7. Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL, the pro-government student wing, which is, effectively, the government’s vigilante force] must be banned from student politics and a student union established.8. All educational institutions and halls of residence must be reopened.9. Guarantees must be provided that no academic or administrative harassment of protesters will take place.

The state minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on his Ministry held a press conference in his ministry and stated that the government has enough rubber bullets in their stock to last 5 years even if they shot one every second. The whole country fell into a state emergency and extreme political instability. The Government issued a curfew across the country from Friday midnight to Saturday noon to get a grip on the situation.