The lacklustre curfew continued for the eighth day in a row on Saturday as many people and vehicles were seen plying on roads beyond the curfew hours in Dhaka city and other places in the country.
In the city, many cars, CNG-run auto-rickshaws, motorbikes and intercity buses along with other vehicles were seen plying during the curfew hours.
Many shops were seen open in the Hatirpool, Katabon, Nilkhet, Dhanmondi and Panthapath areas till 7:00pm as the government relaxed the curfew hours from 8:00am to 5:00pm for the day for Dhaka and its adjoining districts Gazipur, Narayanganj and Narsigndi.
The government announced new office time of six hours from 9:00am to 3:00pm for the next three days, while the curfew would be relaxed for nine hours from 8:00am to 5:00pm in the capital.
From today till Tuesday the government and private offices will run from 9:00am to 3:00pm, according to the public administration ministry.
According to Bangladesh Bank, banks will operate from 10:00am to 3:00pm during this period.
Earlier, offices and banks were asked to operate from 11:00am to 3:00pm.
One more critically injured person died on Saturday while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, taking the death toll from the recent violence during student protests to at least 212 across the country.
The victim, Yamin Chowdhury, 17, was admitted to the hospital with bullet wounds received during the countrywide student movement.
He worked at the finishing section of FnF Fashion at North Badda in the capital.
Yamin’s father Ratan Chowdhury along with his relatives came to the hospital mortuary to receive his body.
He was carrying his son’s factory attendance card, soaked with Yamin’s blood, while receiving the body. The father silently received his son’s body.
Filing of new cases, arresting political opposition and students through nightly block raids, and regular drives by law enforcement agencies continued across Bangladesh in the aftermath of a week-long deadly crackdown on student protests seeking reform in the quota system for public services.
At least 6,000 people, mostly leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were arrested in hundreds of cases filed over alleged ‘vandalism’ in key infrastructure during clashes across the country between July 15 and July 21, according to available police data on Saturday.
The government imposed the curfew and deployed military midnight past July 19 amid violence over student protests.
The police headquarters, in a release on July 19, said that violators of curfew rules in the Dhaka Metropolitan Police area would face one-year imprisonment or financial penalty.
The Appellate Division on July 21 scrapped the High Court verdict that on June 5 asked the government to restore quotas in government jobs.
The apex court fixed 93 per cent jobs for merit-based recruitment and the rest 7 per cent for quota—5 per cent for the children of freedom fighters, 1 per cent for national minorities, and 1 per cent for people with disabilities and third gender.
The government also issued a gazette notification on Tuesday on the Appellate Division verdict on quotas, but students under the banner of Student Movement Against Discrimination rejected the gazette circular, demanding the enactment of a law in the parliament in this regard by forming a commission.
New Age
