Firing teargas and rubber bullets riot police clashed with quota-reform protesters in different parts of the capital city in the first hours of Thursday (July 18, 2024) at the start of a nationwide complete shutdown.
Riot police fought pitched battles with the protesters in Badda, Merul, Uttara, Dhamandi, Motijheel and Arambagh. Police used teargas shells and rubber bullets. Cocktails --homemade bombs-- rocked different parts of the city. The clashes also spread in the alleys of the residential areas causing panic among residents, eyewitnesses said.
Private BRAC University at Badda and its surrounding areas turned into battlefields as students, including those from schools took to the streets defying the heavy presence of police and Border Guards of Bangladesh personnel. The government has deployed 229 BGB platoons to maintain law and order during the shutdown.
No casualties have so far been reported during the first few hours of violence on Thursday. But an 18-year-old boy was reportedly killed in clashes at Jatrabari on Wednesday night raising the death toll from ongoing quota protests to seven.
Hundreds have been injured in the first few days of clashes.
Clashes between protesters, many carrying sticks, and riot police occurred at Uttara, where dozens of colleges and schools are located.
At Uttara's Housebuilding area thousands of students, including women, blocked the main road connecting Tongi with the capital city.
Carrying sticks the students have gathered from all educational institutions in the surrounding areas.
No transport except rickshaws are seen here. After chases and counter-chases seen in the morning amid teargassing riot police seemed to have retreated down the road at Azampur.
"We are not going anywhere until our demands are met," said a 16-year-old girl who has joined from a nearby English-medium school.
UNB is withholding both the name of the girl and her school for their safety.
During the shutdown, the capital city's usual chaotic traffic was absent with a few BRTC double-decker buses opening on almost empty streets.
Rickshaws ruled the streets in absence of public transport as commuters were seen walking to their destinations or standing on bus stations in the hope of catching a transport.
The students called for the shutdown, shortly after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a televised speech on Wednesday evening called for restraint and urged the protesters to wait patiently until the Supreme Court verdict is delivered on the quota issue.
She assured the students that they wouldn't be disappointed with the upcoming verdict scheduled for the first week of next month.
She also ordered a judicial enquiry into the killings during the protests to identify the culprits.
