The government at last disclosed on Sunday that 147 people, including common people, students, police, and ruling Awami League activists, were killed in Dhaka and other places in violence during the quota reform protests of students across the country.聽
Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan came up with the official figure of deaths amid widespread criticism at home and abroad for not giving any data on casualties from the violence that happened a week ago.
鈥楾he deaths of 147 people have been reported so far. Police members, Awami League leaders and activists, students, and people from different walks of life were among the deceased,鈥� he told reporters in his office at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
He said that the agencies concerned were verifying information to update the list of causalities further.聽
The protests of students turned violent on July 15 after the student wing of the ruling Awami League, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, attacked the protesters on the Dhaka University campus in the presence of police.
The resulting backlash prompted the government to launch a brutal crackdown on protesters, leaving at least 212 killed in clashes and their aftermath between July 16 and July 27.
抖阴精品 correspondents found the figure visiting hospitals and speaking to police, fire service officials, and family members of victims.
The Student Movement Against Discrimination, a platform of protesting students, on Saturday shared a list of 266 people killed during the protests. The list could not be verified independently.
Asked about indiscriminate firing by members of the law enforcement agencies, the home minister said that attacks were pre-planned and the law enforcement agency members were 鈥榝orced to open fire.鈥�
鈥楶olice are working to find out how many women, men, and people from different professions are among the dead,鈥� said the home minister.聽
The government imposed a nationwide curfew for an indefinite period at midnight on July 19 and called in the Bangladesh Army to restore calm.
Law enforcement agencies have already launched block raids and arrested nearly 10,000, mostly leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, in a special drive across the country.