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Demonstrators are demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation following protests last month that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs. Those demonstrations escalated into violence that left more than 300 dead. read more
 "Sheikh Hasina’s son urges security forces to block takeover amid mass protests")
Men run past a burning vehicle inside the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, set on fire by protesters, during a rally against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government demanding justice for the victims killed in the recent countrywide deadly clashes, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. Image -AP
The son of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday urged the country’s security forces to block any takeover from her rule as hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded she quit.
“Your duty is to keep our people safe and our country safe and to uphold the constitution,” US-based Sajeeb Wazed Joy said in a post on Facebook. “It means don’t allow any unelected government to come in power for one minute, it is your duty.”
Joy, who is also an information and communications technology advisor to Hasina, warned progress made by Bangladesh would be threatened if she were forced out. “Everything of our development and progress will vanish. Bangladesh would not be able to come back from there,” he said.
“I don’t want that and you also do not want that,” he added. “Myself, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, will not let that happen as long as I can.”
Since the violence began in July, nearly 300 people have died, according to local media reports.
Demonstrators are demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation following protests last month that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs. Those demonstrations escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead.
As the renewed violence raged, Hasina said the protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands.
His warning comes as Bangladesh’s army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman is set to address the nation, a military spokesman told AFP without giving further details. Rallies that began last month against civil service job quotas have escalated into some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year rule and shifted into wider calls for the 76-year-old to resign.
The ruling Awami League party said the demand for Hasina’s resignation showed that the protests have been taken over by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.
Also Sunday, the government announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts were to be closed indefinitely. Mobile internet service was cut off, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible.
Junior Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat said the services were severed to help prevent violence.
At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.
Protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to their jobs.
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English (US) ·