Bangladesh students vow to resume protests that sparked nationwide unrest
PTC News Desk: A Bangladeshi student group vowed to continue protests that caused a deadly police crackdown and widespread unrest unless several of its leaders are released from custody on Sunday.
According to an AFP, this week's unrest killed at least 205 people, making it one of the most violent episodes of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule.
Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in effect more than a week after they were imposed, and a police sweep has apprehended thousands of protestors, including at least half a dozen student leaders.
Members of Students Against Discrimination, whose campaign against civil service job quotas sparked the violence, announced the end of their weeklong protest moratorium.
The group's leader, Nahid Islam, and others "should be freed and the cases against them withdrawn," Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online conference late Saturday.
Masud, who did not reveal his location because he was hiding from authorities, also requested "visible actions" against government ministers and police personnel responsible for the deaths of protesters.
"Otherwise, Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests" beginning Monday, he stated.
Islam and two other top members of the protest group were forcibly discharged from a hospital in Dhaka on Friday and detained by plainclothes officers.
- PTC NEWS
