NEW DELHI: A week after the Bangladesh Supreme Court reduced the quotas that caused unrest leading to over 200 student protestors being killed, the country continues to simmer as the authorities are conducting ‘block raids’ rounding up people they suspect of being trouble makers. The situation is being termed as the worst since the country came into existence in 1971.
“It is an impasse situation, the party in power and the government are trying to quell the movements – using police, rapid action battallions and armed forces. My student, Abu Syed, 25, fell to their bullets. The situation is tense even now as on the pretext of ‘block raids’ young people are being rounded up and put under detention in cells,’’ Professor Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, a political commentator in Bangladesh, told TNIE.
Abu Syed’s family has got a compensation of 9.5 lakh Taka.
According to reports, fully armed police are knocking at doors in random order to comb out and arrest those considered as trouble makers.
“Our statistics (we have the entire list) confirms that 266 people have died during these protests. We don’t consider the present government as legitimate. They are maintaining power through brutal force which has led to gross human rights violations. The opposition too has been silenced. From being a mere student protest this is soon turning into a revolution against the government,’’ Pinaki Bhattacharya, exiled Bangladesh blogger, human rights activist told TNIE.
