Why are Bangladesh students protesting? | The Take

School’s out in Bangladesh, and students are up in arms against government job quotas. In response, there’s been a deadly crackdown in which authorities shut down all public universities and cut mobile phone services. Are students in Bangladesh losing faith in their country’s promise of independence and democracy?

In this episode: 

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Amy Walters, Sarí el-Khalili, Khaled Soltan, and Sonia Bhagat, with Manahil Naveed, Veronique Eshaya, and our host Malika Bilal.

The Take production team is Amy Walters, Ashish Malhotra, Catherine Nouhan, Chloe K. Li, Duha Mosaad, Khaled Soltan, Manahil Naveed, Marcos Bartolomé, Sarí el-Khalili, Sonia Bhagat, Tamara Khandaker, Mohammed Zain Shafi Khan and Veronique Eshaya. 

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

[yahyakhan]

Prayers and support Bangladesh brother from Pakistan 🇵🇰❤️🇵🇸 🇧🇩

[mubindid]

Our current PM should step down. Remove all political parties from Universities.

[royalislamsun]

800+ students killed by sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh
PM), injury 15000+
Please save Bangladesh students

[mohammadali]

It's 100% true news,
Save Bangladesh, save student life, save democracy's 😢

[HealthlifeBD]

O Allah protect us Bangladesh from the hands of this dictator🤲😥

[JakiaSultana-wo]

I am from bangladesh..We want Justice.. Save our students plz..

[albyimtiaj]

Save Bangladeshi students.
We need international support
.

[drinksboombq]

Save Bangladeshi students 🥹
Step down Hasina ✊

[WahedulAlam-wkhp]

যদি তুমি ভয় পাও
তবে তুমি শেষ
যদি তুমি রুখে দাড়াও
তবে তুমি বাংলাদেশ❗✊

[ojanakjanteallaharsirishti]

We live in a country where there is no freedom of fair speech. that's Bangladesh.

[heypookie]

There was no internet from 17th July to 24th July at all. Now the internet is back but its very slow. Facebook, whatsapp, twitter is down. Other apps are very slow. We are living in Bangladesh like hostages.

[maheenulburhan]

Thank you for covering what’s happening in our beloved motherland. The barbaric and callous acts of violence against the students of Bangladesh are truly horrific, and this fascist government spearheaded by Sheikh Hasina must step down. It’s not about Quota Protest anymore, it’s about the innocent lives of students being lost. We want justice, and we want it now!
- A Bangladeshi living in the US

[mjmj]

Save Bangladesh, Save students, save democracy

[rubelskating]

আমি একজন প্রবাসী ছাত্ররা তোমরা এগিয়ে যাও
অবৈধ শেখ হাসিনার পদত্যাগ চাই

প্রিয় ছাত্রদল এখন বর্তমান সময়ের প্রিয় মুক্তিযোদ্ধা তোমরা
তোমরা ছাড়া আমাদের দেশ কেউ স্বাধীন করতে পারবে না

[SHADIN-GM]

More then 500 student Are death....and more then 20000 to 30000 student are injured ...and 10000 student are disappear 😢😢😢

[sarojratul]

Every word he said is true. I called my friend over there very early in the morning, when voices are barely audible. From that call, I learned police are shooting anyone on sight. There are tanks on the roads and helicopters on the sky. One of the choppers threw an expired tear shell into my friend's apartment on the 6th floor for no reason. Due to which their newborn baby almost died. They are speaking of 100 deaths, but in reality, it's hundreds, maybe even thousands. My friend can see 3-4 people getting shot and dead on the spot every day from their apartment windows. The situation is much much worse than I can explain. I only heard this much. Reality is even more terrible. I am sure Sheikh Mujib would have had her own daughter killed if he knew what she has done to this country.

[XtremeSteelGaming]

No internet for a week
1500+ killed
30000+ injured
61000+ arrested
All for asking to reform a country for the better to the people who's job it is to reform the country for the better.

[KINGSS_]

For all the laymen out there, let me elaborate everything from the scratch:-
1) Firstly, there's a so-called, "Quota system for freedom fighters" in Bangladesh which *only* favours the Children and Grandchildren of the Freedom fighters that fought in the 1971 war. The current quota is 30% and it massively favours students and employees, it's basically like position/seat reservations for prospects while finding a job. So you can clearly understand that, even the "low-skilled" individuals gets a pass and are much easily able to pursue their dream careers without *proper merits*.
2) Obviously, no Disrespect to all the Beloved Freedom fighters, but to me personally, it serves total injustice to the rest of the students who are hardworking, bright and has much more potential to offer and be the building blocks for our country's future generations.
3) That being said, it's literally a 'Now or Never' situation, hence the students of Bangladesh are demanding to fully abolish this 'freedom fighter quota' to come to a fair level playing field when it comes to prospects finding their jobs. The job market is already very saturated in the first place, so there is a dire need to abolish this unfair, quota system.
(Please note that, Students are fully in support of the 'Handicapped/Physically & Mentally disabled quota', 'women's quota', though because Disabled or Differently-abled people deserves a better chance, otherwise it's literally an inhumane thing to do!!)
4) So the students especially from the well-reputed Dhaka University and Jagannath University first decided to organise a fully 'Peace protest' as an attempt to cover and expressing all their demands to the government.
(P.S: Our PM Sheikh Hasina, blatantly tried to flip the topics up in a press-briefing and in return decided to term all the people without quota as "razalar" which is almost like a slang term used for " a War Traitor "!)
5) On the 15th of July, 2024, there were groups of police trying to control student crowd if things go wrong. But when the so-called organisation, "Chatro League" decided to intervene in the 'Students peace protest', things escalated from 0 to 100 instantly and became a total ruckus! From innocent students not only verbally, but physically harassed by the Chatro League! That being said, the police just decided to just sit and watch the entire commotion and even favouring the Chatro League members to bring in Weapons like Bricks, Bamboo Sticks to even Steel rods to attack Innocent students!!!!
6) Students were left totally Bloodied on the streets, from facing massive bruises and cuts to fractures. Students were literally begging and hiding under the Scarves of fellow, female students just to evade from the 'Murder-Hungry' Chatro League members! Please note that the chatro League had no business at all in the first place to be amongst the peace protesters and then brutally attempting to murder these students like WTF!?!
7) Why do we think that all of this commotion was 100% scripted and well-planned? It's because most of the Chatro League members came with protection gears like helmets and weapons like I already mentioned, bamboo sticks, Steel rods and even Guns!! (Yes you heard that right, Guns too in a peace protest!)
This has to be a clear order from the government to the Chatro League to suppress all of the protests even if it required by means of murdering! The electric supply as well as the Internet supply in these Universities has been totally disrupted so that the peace protesters won't be able to publish the acts of violence, Online through Live streaming on Facebook/Twitter. Sudent accomodation halls were broken into, barricaded and attacked yesterday during late midnight, 'Stealthily'!!
8) The current number of injured students already crossed 400-500 and the number of innocent students deaths are creeping up every single day! (Already 5-6 students passed away and is officially confirmed). The peace protests has extended to a lot more Universities & institutions, today... In the same time, the Chatro League members are in the rise too with their Violent nature, trying to suppress these peace protesters everywhere in this country, even at the cost of Blood shedding!
9) So to conclude all of this, all we require at this moment is a "Voice to be heard from" from all the international organisations and Media coverages. If awareness is not conveyed in time, there will be much, much more blood sheds resulting in more innocent losses of lives, every single day! Massive respect and support to all the news outlets for providing coverage to this story as innocent students are in dire need of all the support that they can get.

THIS TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED AND HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS AND BODIES LIKE CHATRO LEAGUE NEEDS TO BE BANNED, FOREVER!!!

(P.S:- Comment and like on this Thread for more visibility and also rectify me, if I made mistakes in any of the points above)

[FahimaIslam-rk]

Thousands people have died in the last few days. Media is not exposing the real news and update. Pray for my country!

[dwkkmmb]

What this journalist brother of mine is saying is speaking the truth of the hearts of 17 crore people