Brutal violence descended on July 15, 2024, as activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League launched coordinated attacks on students protesting for reforms in the public service quota system.
On July 14, 2024, tensions flared as hundreds of students poured out of their DU dormitories to protest a “disparaging comment” made by then–prime minister Sheikh Hasina regarding quotas in government jobs.
On July 13, 2024, the Students Against Discrimination announced a fresh set of protest programmes, shifting their strategy from blockades to processions and symbolic marches.
Despite the weekly holiday, anti-quota protesters once again blocked the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka, demanding reforms to the quota system in government jobs and condemning the police action on students the previous day.
On July 11, 2024, the anti-quota movement entered a new phase of confrontation. Ignoring police warnings and ministers’ calls to step back, thousands of protesters defied barricades and took to the streets as part of their “Bangla Blockade.”
July 10, 2024.Protesters refuse to back down.Shamsuddoza Sajen.The protests over the quota system in government jobs showed no signs of slowing down on July 10 as students across the country vowed to continue their movement despite the Supreme Court’s order for a four-week stat
The ongoing Bangla Blockade paused for a day as students leading the quota reform movement prepared for their next round of protests.
For the second consecutive day, the Bangla Blockade grips the capital, with thousands of students and jobseekers bringing traffic to a standstill at key intersections across Dhaka.
Pakistan, faced with the prospect of sharply reduced foreign aid during the coming year, announced a budget today that called for stringent national austerity but provided substantially more money for the military.
The major aid-giving nations, led by the World Bank, quietly agreed to postpone indefinitely any new economic assistance for Pakistan.
Acting president of the Government of Bangladesh Syed Nazrul Islam strongly deprecated renewed US arms supply to Pakistan. In a telegram to US President Richard Nixon, Nazrul said the government and people of Bangladesh were most hurt and distressed to learn about the arms supply.
Bangladesh Home Minister AHM Kamaruzzaman welcomed today the decision of the Aid Pakistan Consortium to withhold further aid until there was a political settlement of the Bangladesh issue.
The office of Senator Edward M Kennedy said today the state department had informed the senator that two Pakistani freighters now en route from New York to Karachi were carrying ammunition for the Pakistani armed forces.
Delegates of western industrial powers and Japan today postponed discussion of fresh aid for Pakistan until a political settlement of the conflict between East and West Pakistan is in sight.
Intellectuals and academicians of Bangladesh held that the only political solution with Pakistan was the emergence of a sovereign and an independent Bangladesh, according to Dr AR Mallick, founding vice-chancellor of Chittagong University.
Pakistan President Yahya Khan, in a letter dated June 18, 1971, drew attention of American President Richard Nixon to the “rapidly mounting threat to peace and security in the sub-continent”.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi today reiterated that she would send back Bangladesh refugees as soon as normalcy was restored.
Indian Foreign Minister Sardar Swaran Singh carried to US President Richard Nixon today an urgent plea for help to achieve a political settlement in East Pakistan and enable the return of six million Bangladeshi refugees to their homes.
