Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

DHAKA: Demonstrations in Bangladesh after Friday prayers demanded justice for victims of nationwide unrest and police crackdown, after the release of protest leaders failed to quell public anger.

Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem that killed at least 206 people last month, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

The violence was some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina´s 15-year tenure, and the actions of her government´s security forces provoked widespread rancour at home and international criticism abroad.

A day after police freed six top members of the group which organised the initial protests, its leaders urged their compatriots to once again return to the streets.

“We want justice for the murders of our sisters and brothers,” Students Against Discrimination said in a statement.

Thousands of young men in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong heeded the call after midday worship in the Muslim-majority nation, defying torrential monsoon rains.

“Why are our brothers in graves and the killers outside?” one crowd chanted outside the country´s largest mosque in central Dhaka, a teeming megacity of 20 million people.

Students Against Discrimination had demanded the release of its detained leaders, three of whom were forcibly checked out of a hospital and taken away by plainclothes police last week.

Their release was a sign the government was hoping to “de-escalate tensions” with protesters, University of Oslo researcher Mubashar Hasan told AFP on Thursday.

But other demands by the students remain unmet, including a public apology from Hasina for the violence and the dismissal of several of her ministers.