KARAPATAN condemns the massive crackdown on dissenters in Bangladesh by the fascist Hasina government. According to the latest reports, security forces have been launching “tokhang”-like saturation drives in entire neighborhoods, looking for students and checking their cellphones. More than 10,000 persons, mostly students and youth, have been arrested in the dragnet, and more than 200,000 reportedly charged on flimsy evidence with crimes like vandalism, arson, theft, trespassing and damage to state property.
The widespread crackdown in Bangladesh is the latest development in a series of violent attacks on university students peacefully protesting a government policy mandating that 30% of all government jobs should be reserved for descendants of veterans of the Bangladeshi independence struggle, a move widely seen to favor the ruling Awami League party. The violence, instigated in mid-July by a youth group affiliated with the Awami League, has led to the killing of up to 200 youth and student protesters. For a time, the Hasina government resorted to shutting down or imposing restrictions on the country’s internet service to prevent information from reaching the international community.
KARAPATAN is in solidarity with those who oppose the fascist government of Sheikh Hasina, which has been ruling Bangladesh with an iron fist for the past 15 years, and fully supports their struggle to attain justice for the victims of this despicable onslaught on their civil and political rights.