Tens of thousands demand resignation of Bangladeshi Premier Hasina

By Faisal Mahmud

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - Tens of thousands of people on Friday gathered at Shaheed Minar in central Dhaka, a monument dedicated to Bangladesh’s language movement martyrs, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government.

Despite the rain, the crowd chanted slogans “One point, one demand; When will you leave, Hasina?" and “The autocrat must go, and democracy must be restored."

“There are no ifs and buts in this movement,” Rashid Anwar, an NGO employee, told Anadolu. “We are on the streets with a single demand for Hasina’s resignation.”

Over the past three weeks, the South Asian nation of approximately 170 million has been in turmoil due to a student-led protest demanding reforms to government job quotas.

While the government eventually made changes to the quota system, its violent response to the protests resulted in at least 200 deaths, mostly students and ordinary people.

On Friday, UNICEF South Asia Regional Director Sanjay Wijesekera reported that at least 32 of the deceased were children.

"UNICEF has confirmed that at least 32 children were killed during the protests in July, with many more injured and detained. This is a tragic loss. UNICEF condemns all acts of violence. On behalf of UNICEF, I offer my deepest condolences to the families grieving the loss of their children,” Wijesekera said.

Political analyst Zahed Ur Rahman told Anadolu that the government's apparent indifference to the deaths and its efforts to blame political opponents for the violence, rather than holding the true perpetrators accountable, has fueled public anger.

“The Hasina administration believed it could quell the protests through brute force and mass arrests, but these actions have only intensified the unrest,” he added.

While most of Friday’s protests in Dhaka remained largely peaceful, demonstrations in the Uttara suburb turned violent when the ruling party’s student wing reportedly attacked protesters without provocation, resulting in injuries to several demonstrators.

In the port city of Chattogram in southern Bangladesh, several thousand protesters started marching towards GEC Corner, a key intersection in the city, following Friday's Jummah prayers. They chanted slogans calling for Prime Minister Hasina's resignation.

In the northeastern city of Sylhet, police attempted to halt a large procession of several thousand individuals after Jummah prayers. At one point, officers deployed tear gas, sound grenades, and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

According to police sources, at least 10 people have been arrested in Sylhet.