Government of Bangladesh must urgently halt mounting death toll of protestors

Responding to what has been the deadliest day for protests in Bangladesh with 32 deaths in a single day yesterday through the quota reform protests and ongoing violence within the nation, Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty Worldwide, mentioned:

“The rising loss of life toll is a surprising indictment of absolutely the intolerance proven by the Bangladeshi authorities to protest and dissent. The illegal power used towards protesters exhibits a callous disregard for the proper to life and an abject failure by regulation enforcement officers to uphold their obligations underneath home and worldwide human rights regulation.

“Amnesty Worldwide has repeatedly referred to as for the Authorities of Bangladesh to undertake a rights-respecting method within the policing of protests. The regulation enforcement businesses should instantly finish their illegal use of deadly power towards protesters and be certain that the proper of individuals to peaceable meeting is assured in regulation and apply.

The rising loss of life toll is a surprising indictment of absolutely the intolerance proven by the Bangladeshi authorities to protest and dissent.

Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty Worldwide

“Authorities should instantly conduct a immediate, impartial and neutral investigation into the deaths and maintain all these discovered accountable totally accountable. Victims of illegal police violence should obtain full reparations from the state.

“The arbitrary imposition of a complete shutdown of the web throughout the nation and a blanket ban on protests introduced by the Dhaka Metropolitan police additional restricts the rights to freedom of expression and peaceable meeting. Such blanket restrictions are at odds with Bangladesh’s worldwide obligations as a state occasion to the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“It’s reckless to impede entry to data throughout what has been every week of escalating violence and heavy-handed crackdown on pupil led protests throughout the nation. Blanket shutdowns impression individuals’s security, safety, mobility, livelihood whereas creating instability and panic, additional undermining their belief in authorities. The ban should be urgently lifted, and all of the individuals detained or arrested solely for exercising their proper to protest peacefully needs to be instantly and unconditionally launched.”  

Background

Virtually 39 deaths have been reported in Bangladesh through the ongoing violence because the mass quota reform protests began on 1 July 2024.

Any regulation enforcement intervention within the context of protests ought to first goal to de-escalate tensions. Furthermore, the authorities should exhaust all non-forceful measures earlier than resorting to power. If recourse to forceful means is totally mandatory, the authorities should use solely the minimal power required to attain a respectable goal, and prior warnings should be given. Firearms will not be an applicable software for the policing of protests and should be restricted to focused people in circumstances by which it’s strictly essential to confront an imminent menace of loss of life or severe damage.

On 17 July 2024, Amnesty Worldwide verified proof of illegal power getting used towards pupil protesters through the ongoing ‘Bangla-Blockade’ quota-reform protest and urged the federal government to make sure protestors are protected against additional hurt.