50 more people have died on Sunday. Protesters against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are vowing to step up their protests and call for a general boycott.
At least 50 people were killed in clashes during protests in Bangladesh on Sunday in support of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, bringing the death toll to around 300 in a month of demonstrations.
According to the AFP news agency, citing police spokesman Kamrul Ahsan, “at least 14 police officers” were among the dead and 300 were injured. AFP has obtained the latest assessments from the police and local doctors.
Representatives of the student movement, which has been protesting against the Bangladeshi government for a month and whose demonstrations have already caused at least 200 deaths, rejected on Saturday the invitation to dialogue sent by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whom they accuse of repressing actions with an iron fist.
“There is no room to demand justice from this murderous government or to sit down and talk. The time for apologizing has passed and when there was time, the government started arresting students and torturing them,” said one of the leaders of the student movement, Nahid Islam, on the social network Facebook.
The student representatives’ statements came hours after Sheikh Hasina called for dialogue with students who have been protesting against the government for a month.
The prime minister took a more conciliatory stance, drawing comparisons between university students and a paramilitary group from the 1971 war of independence.
Hospital, police, family and firefighter sources told Efe on Saturday that at least 194 people died in the last month during clashes; but the student movement estimated, however, that the number of fatalities was 266.
The students say that if the government does not heed their demands, they will step up their protests and call for a general boycott. Among their demands is an unconditional apology from Hasina for the death and the dismissal of several ministers.
Source: Observadora
