According to a senior health ministry official, student-led demonstrations against job quotas sparked a statewide rebellion in Bangladesh that resulted in extensive violence and the deaths of over 1,000 people.
According to the temporary head of the Health Ministry, more than 1,000 people were killed in the violence that broke out in Bangladesh during the anti-government rallies last month, making it the deadliest time in the nation’s history since independence in 1971.
The unrest began as a student-led protest against public sector employment quotas and eventually turned into a rebellion against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On August 5, just before hundreds of demonstrators attacked her home, Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India.
“More than 400 students have lost their vision and over 1,000 people have died,” the Health Ministry stated in a statement on Thursday, citing Nurjahan Begum as its chief.
Hasina’s administration was replaced by an interim government headed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus. This put an end to the violence that had erupted weeks earlier as security forces cracked down on protestors and persisted for a few days after her departure.
“Many have become blind in one eye, many have lost sight in both eyes… many people have leg injuries and many of them had to get their legs amputated,” added the statement.
The ministry did not specify in its statement how it arrived at the death toll estimate, but a home ministry official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated he thought it was based on data from the local government and hospital records.
