Bangladesh PM calls emergency meeting with university leaders as student leaders reject call for dialogue

People take part in a protest march against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government to demand justice for victims killed in recent deadly clashes across the country, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. | Photo credit: AP

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called an emergency meeting with university vice-chancellors and principals on Saturday night amid heightened tensions as student leaders rejected her invitation to talks and demanded her resignation, days after more than 200 people were killed in protests against quotas.

Bangladesh has recently been the scene of violent clashes between police and protesters, mostly students, demanding an end to a controversial quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.

The prime minister held a “view exchange meeting with vice-chancellors of public and private universities, senior professors and university principals at Ganobhaban (the official residence of the prime minister),” a PMO spokesperson said.

Without giving details, he said the meeting focused on “the general situation created by the students’ campaign and how to overcome it,” while teachers pledged to work in unison to “save students from the clutches of evil forces.”

The nearly three-hour meeting began at around 8:15pm (BST) after tens of thousands of students, their guardians and ordinary people joined a massive protest rally at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka against killings and mass arrests linked to the quota system for government jobs.

Protesters chanted anti-government slogans, with some calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while similar demonstrations were held in several other major cities amid reports of scattered clashes.

Protest leaders called for an all-out civil disobedience movement starting Sunday and asked officials and law enforcement to support them rather than the government.

Government leaders had earlier said the students’ “peaceful campaign” had been hijacked by the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party and its student front Islami Chhatra Shibir, backed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s BNP.

In an executive order issued on Friday, the government banned the Jamaat and its front organisations.

“In clear terms, we want to say that we do not care what happens in the (ruling) Awami League, the (main opposition non-parliamentary) BNP or the Jamaat. The bonds that unite our students are unbreakable,” said Nahid Islam, one of the main coordinators of the protest.

He called the incumbent government “fascist” for its “repressive” role in taming his justified campaign and announced that the students would come up with a “national framework of future Bangladesh” after consulting all stakeholders.

“We announce the abolition of the government and the fascist regime. That is why we are calling for a student uprising. We want to build a Bangladesh where autocracy will never return. Our only demand is the resignation of this government, including Sheikh Hasina, and the end of fascism.”

“The government is now saying that the doors of Ganabhaban are open for talks. We believe that she (Sheikh Hasina) has already understood that the doors of Ganabhaban should remain open. We demand the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, including the entire cabinet. Not only must she resign, but she must also be brought to justice for all the murders and disappearances in the country,” he said.

Witnesses said student protesters blocked major arteries in the capital, causing traffic jams, while police and paramilitary troops stood guard.

Coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement announced their single-point demand and gave a 24-hour ultimatum to reopen all university dormitories as authorities ordered the closure of all schools, colleges and universities for an indefinite period in order to control the street campaign.

Authorities had earlier imposed a nationwide curfew, calling in army troops, as the BGB paramilitary forces appeared unable to support the police in handling the situation.

Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman held a meeting with all military officers in Dhaka in person and in cantonments outside through telephonic conferences and urged them to perform their duties with patience and restraint.

Prime Minister Hasina on Friday urged angry students to gather at her official residence Ganabhaban for talks aimed at ending violence over the quota system in government jobs.

His call comes a day after fresh protests erupted on Friday, leaving two dead and more than 100 injured as more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered in parts of the capital, some shouting “Down with the autocrat” and demanding justice for the victims.

“I repeat, they (student leaders) can come to me for discussions if they wish, they can also bring their mentors with them at any time,” she said during a meeting with leaders of different professional groups.

“The door of Ganabhaban is open to them,” she said.

“I want to listen to them. I don’t want any conflict,” she said, while sources in the ruling Awami League said three party leaders had been tasked with communicating and convincing the coordinators of the anti-quota movement.

Meanwhile, two policemen were suspended by the higher authorities for their “unprofessional conduct”. The policemen fired shots that killed Abu Sayeed, a second-year student of Northwestern University Rangpur, the first victim of the protest on the university campus, which intensified the student’s anger.

Video footage and photos show Sayeed standing alone with his arms outstretched, defying police repression against protesters when a police officer suddenly shot him several times.

However, coordinators of the Student Anti-Discrimination Movement said on Friday that they had no intention of holding talks with the government and overnight called for a nationwide street protest and a “total non-cooperation” or civil disobedience campaign.

One of the six coordinators who were detained for their “own safety” by police and released after announcing the withdrawal of their movement on Friday, said they had been forced to make the statement.

“When we were arrested at the office, we were asked to meet the prime minister and suspend the movement. There was even a plan to forcefully take us to Ganobhaban,” one of the coordinators, Asif Mahmud, said in a Facebook post.

“We are ready to pay the price of an uncompromising stand, even if it means death. We call for the participation of every citizen of Bangladesh in the student-citizen uprising,” Asif wrote.