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| Police fire teargas during a clash between anti-quota supporters, police and Awami League supporters at the Rampura area in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 18, 2024. (REUTERS) |
Bangladesh Protests Live Updates: As the anti-quota protests turn more violent with each passing day, the police imposes 'shoot-on-sight-order', according to an AP update. As the cops and military forces patrolled in Dhaka, the curfew in the city was relaxed between noon and 2 pm. The curfew is expected to continue till 10 am on Sunday, said lawmaker Obaidul Quader, the general secretary of the ruling Awami League party. Violence across 47 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts has now claimed a total of 105 lives, with over 1,500 injured, as quoted by AFP and local media. The news agency also reported Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cancellation of a foreign diplomatic tour amid clashes.
What is the current situation? PM Hasina’s government has announced a nationwide curfew across Bangladesh and ordered the deployment of military forces to maintain order. The government has deployed police and paramilitary forces across the capital to lock down campuses and break up protests. 978 Indian students have returned home amid announcement of imposition of a nationwide curfew and the deployment of military forces to keep order, reported AFP.
What are the protesters demanding? The agitators demand an end to the quota system in Bangladesh which allocated 30% reservation for kin of veterans who fought in the country's war of independence in 1971 against Pakistan. They are of the stance that the quota system is discriminatory and benefits supporters of Hasina, whose Awami League Party led the independence movement. They want merit-based system instead.
Bangladesh Protests Live: 11 students cross over to India via West Bengal
11 students, including, five Nepalese students crossed over at the Fulbari border outpost near Siliguri and six Indian students returned via the Mekhliganj border gate in Cooch Behar district, according to police.
Rahul Rai, a Nepalese student at Rangpur Medical College in Bangladesh, told reporters, "The situation is bad in Bangladesh. Clashes with security forces are taking place everywhere. We felt unsafe and decided to return." Figures of students entering India will be available to the immigration authorities, who are still gathering the data, informed a source in the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission.
A Bangladeshi tourist at the Petrapole border outpost in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district expressed concern about the lack of communication with relatives in Jessore. He and his friends had initially planned to visit Darjeeling but decided to return due to escalating violence in their country. (PTI)
Bangladesh Protests Live: 100 students return from violence-hit Bangladesh through Tripura border
The Border Security Force announced that about 100 students returned to India from violence-hit Bangladesh through two integrated checkposts in Tripura, on Saturday.
BSF (Tripura Frontier) said in a statement, "Indian and foreign students, who are studying in Bangladesh, are returning to India as the agitation has now become violent. Today, till 1600 hrs, approx 100 students, including those from Nepal, have returned using valid documents."
The statement further stated that the BSF is closely monitoring the situation across the border and troops are on high alert. BSF, Tripura Frontier, Inspector General (IG) Patel Piyush Purushottam Das assured all possible assistance to the students and spoke to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) officers for cooperation at their end.
BSF has made "all necessary arrangements, including refreshments and transport, at the ICPs to facilitate smooth arrival and further movement of the students to their destinations", it said. "Around 240 students from Meghalaya, Assam, Mizoram and Nepal, who have been studying in Bangladesh are expected to return through the state's two ICPs- Srimantapur and Akhaura. The DMs concerned were asked to coordinate with BSF," said a senior state government official. (PTI)
Bangladesh Protests Live: PDSF activists extend solidarity to Bangladesh students by staging protest in Kolkata | Recap
