This edition of the quota reform movement started on the first day of July this year.
At first it was termed as “quota reform movement” but gradually it became an “anti-quota” as well as “anti-government” movement fueled by some opportunistic political powers like BNP and Jamaat.
Thus, it started as a non-violent movement, but became one of the most violent movements in the history of Bangladesh, and the students didn’t even realize it till date!
From July 16, the quota reform movement turned violent which led to the deaths of at least 124 people including law enforcers as of Sunday, July 21.
I deeply abhor the way the dead bodies of four police officials were displayed in Jatrabari.
I want to offer my sincere condolences to the family members of the deceased.
Every life matters, and the real perpetrators behind all these deaths need to be identified as well as punished.
I can recall the similarity in atrocities committed by Jamaat and BNP miscreants in 2013 (after the ICT judgment of Delwar Hossein Sayeedi), in 2014-15 (pre- and post-election), and finally in 2018 (during that year’s anti-quota movement).
The real targets of these perpetrators were to demolish the infrastructural developments of the past 10 years for which the people of the country are proud, such as the metrorail, Mayor Hanif flyover, Padma Bridge, etc.
The perpetrators attacked important government and non-government infrastructures like the BTV building, Bridges Authority’s main building, express highway, BGMEA building, and many more.
Numerous important places of the capital experienced the horrors of vandalism and arson attacks for the past few days.
The capital’s Jatrabari, Shonir Akhra, Narayanganj, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Farmgate, Gulistan, Mirpur, Rampura, Mohakhali, and Uttara were the most affected areas.
Metrorail stations of Mirpur 10, Kazipara, and Sheorapara are now completely unusable due to horrific arson attacks.
The responsible authority has informed that it will take almost a year to completely start these stations again.
The attacks continued throughout the whole country over the past few days.
Outside the capital the most horrific incident was the Narsinghdi jail break. The miscreants of Jamaat and BNP attacked the district jail of Narsinghdi and broke free almost 850 prisoners, seven of whom belong to the banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team and two of whom are members of the JMB. They also looted 85 weapons from the jail’s armoury.
I strongly believe as a university teacher that the general students cannot be behind these heinous attacks.
The miscreants blended with the general students from July 16 and carried out their vile onslaughts throughout the country to create pressure on the government as well as to damage the image of the country in the international media.
The perpetrators also carried out the vandalism in almost all the public and private universities of the country. They smashed different infrastructures of the universities like the halls, residence of the vice-chancellors, etc.
It is hard to tell how much time it will take to fully restore the varsity environment to be education-friendly after such incidents.
The attacks not only hampered the university-level education system, rather it affected the entire education system from top to bottom.
Board exams like HSC and secondary school exams were suspended due to this.
The government was forced to deploy the armed forces in aid of the civil administration and declare curfew from July 19 because of the crisis.
These past few days took a huge toll on the overall economic condition of the country.
According to BGMEA information, the garments industry is facing a huge economic loss of 1,900C every day.
The prices of daily life stocks are getting higher and higher due to disruption in the food product supply. Prices have increased from Tk 30-50 per product and the dairy farms are facing a loss of 150C every day.
Lower-middle income families are in great hardship due to this increase in price of food products and one can only guess the condition of the day labourers.
Ministry of Relief and Disaster Management informed that the amount of financial loss they endured due to the arson in their Mohakhali office is almost 700C.
A committee has been formed to measure the financial loss due to the arson attack in the main office of the Bridges Authority. It needs to be mentioned that a total of 55 cars which were parked in this building were set on fire.
The power and energy minister informed the media that they are currently facing almost 1,000C of financial loss.
Numerous buses, cars, motor-cycles, and rickshaws were set on fire in the past few days. The trains and train lines also faced attacks from the miscreants. As a result, the inter-district travel within the country has been hampered.
The rickshaw-pullers informed that they are facing a loss of Tk 700-800 per day due to the violent unrest.
The communication by the digital platform is also facing a severe disruption as the internet is down due to arson attacks on various important infrastructures providing the internet services.
The online banking, online-based businesses, and freelancers are facing a huge financial loss. The overseas Bangladeshis are unable to send money to their families living in the country which is resulting in massive hardship.
The people of Digital Bangladesh had almost forgotten how to pay the bills offline, thanks to the prime minister, but because of the internet being down for the last three days, the people are facing difficulties to pay their electricity and gas bills.
But even in this time of complete internet shut down, fake news is still spreading. Various newspapers are still publishing fake and misleading news to trigger the general people against the government.
One of the major newspapers of the country published an article that the 62 coordinators of the quota reform movement gave a press release about continuing the total shutdown movement even after the government agreed to the eight points submitted by the students. Who are these 62 coordinators and why didn’t we hear about them before?
The miscreants also attacked reporters. A local female reporter of Narayanganj was a victim of a rape attempt while collecting news and information. A portion of her face was burnt by these miscreants. Another two female reporters were beaten up at the same place. I demand that the local law enforcers should look into these allegations and bring these culprits to justice.
On the one hand, the members of the quota reform movement informed the media that they will not take any liability for the arson and vandalism done by the miscreants under their banner.
On the other hand, they are demanding that the government should revoke the curfew as soon as possible.
So, who will take responsibility if there are further attacks that will come as soon as the government revokes the curfew?
I strongly believe that the protesters will sit with the government to find a peaceful solution by which good governance and democratic values will prevail.
Professor Dr Mizanur Rahman is former Chairman, National Human Rights Commission.
This opinion piece was first published in the print edition of Dhaka Tribune on July 23
