Bangladesh’s minister of state for data and broadcasting has defended the federal government’s dealing with of mass protests, as United Nations consultants known as for an impartial investigation into the federal government’s deadly crackdown on demonstrators.
In an unique interview with Al Jazeera on Thursday, Mohammad Arafat stated the nation’s safety forces had achieved the whole lot “to convey again the peace” amid the coed protests.
He accused “third-party” actors, together with “extremists and terrorists”, of fuelling the unrest.
“We’re not referring to the scholars [as] the terrorists and anarchists. It’s the third social gathering, those that intruded into this motion and began doing all this,” Arafat stated on Speak to Al Jazeera.
“We tried our greatest to de-escalate the stress,” he stated, including that “some persons are attempting so as to add gas to the fireplace, are attempting to create a scenario the place they will take benefit … and topple the federal government”.
1000’s of Bangladeshi college students took to the streets earlier this month to demand reforms to the South Asian nation’s quota system, which allocates 30 p.c of presidency jobs to the descendants of veterans who fought for Bangladesh within the 1971 warfare.
Greater than 150 scholar protesters have been killed and hundreds have been arrested within the crackdown on the demonstrations, based on native media, fuelling tensions throughout the nation of greater than 170 million individuals.
The protests turned violent on July 15 after members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) – the coed wing of the nation’s ruling social gathering – allegedly attacked the protesters.
Police then cracked down on the demonstrations and imposed a curfew. College students had been requested to vacate universities, which had been shut down; companies had been shuttered, and web entry was disrupted nationwide.
The Bangladeshi authorities has come underneath worldwide scrutiny for its dealing with of the protests.
On Thursday, United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Turk called for “an neutral, impartial and clear investigation into all alleged human rights violations” that occurred in the course of the crackdown.
“We perceive that many individuals had been subjected to violent assaults by teams reportedly affiliated with the Authorities, and no effort was made to guard them,” Turk stated.
In a separate statement, a bunch of UN consultants additionally known as for an impartial probe into what they described as the federal government’s “violent crackdown on protesters”.
“The federal government is blaming different individuals, others are blaming the federal government; we’d like a full neutral investigation,” one of many consultants, Irene Khan, the UN particular rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion, advised Al Jazeera.
“However since there is no such thing as a belief within the authorities, it must be achieved with the worldwide group,” Khan stated on Thursday.
“We’re calling on the federal government to ask the UN to conduct such an investigation to search out out what went unsuitable, to take duty, and to carry the perpetrators to account.”
Official loss of life toll not but decided: Minister
In his interview with Speak to Al Jazeera, Arafat – the minister – denounced the protesters for storming the headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Tv (BTV) within the capital, Dhaka.
He stated policemen guarding the constructing had been outnumbered, and “as a result of they weren’t permitted to open fireplace … these miscreants went contained in the BTV, actually invaded, and set fireplace and began vandalising and destroying all of the property”.
Arafat stated the federal government has but to find out an official loss of life toll from the unrest.
“On the subject of the casualties, accidents, and deaths, we’re not keen to discriminate between the police and normal individuals, or the protesters, or the individuals from the supporters of the federal government,” he stated.
The minister advised Al Jazeera that an impartial judicial committee would guarantee an intensive investigation into what occurred, “so that everybody chargeable for any of those casualties could be delivered to e book.”
Arafat additionally dismissed any requires Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign, including she had solely been “defending the individuals”.
On Tuesday, protesters prolonged the suspension of their protests till Friday, however they had been slated to fulfill on Thursday to debate whether or not they would lengthen the pause additional.
Amongst their key calls for is a stipulation that Hasina should publicly apologise for the killings of scholars.
They’ve additionally known as on Residence Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, Street Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Training Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Nowfel, and Regulation Minister Anisul Haque to resign from the cupboard and the social gathering.