As the sun rose on July 31, 2024, thousands of students, teachers, and citizens across Bangladesh prepared to join the March for Justice, a countrywide programme organised by Students Against Discrimination.
Amid continued mourning and mounting outrage, July 30 marked a powerful day of nationwide protests and symbolic resistance, as students, teachers, guardians, and citizens rallied across Bangladesh demanding justice for the lives lost during the quota reform movement.
On July 29, 2024, the Awami League-led 14-party alliance recommended that the government ban Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, citing their alleged involvement in anti-state activities.
By July 28, more than 2.13 lakh people—most of them unnamed—had been accused in nearly 200 cases filed with police stations across the capital in connection with the recent violence centring the quota reform movement.
City residents, still reeling from the trauma of deaths and destruction during the quota reform protests, felt a renewed wave of fear. Each day, particularly after sundown, convoys of vehicles carrying law enforcers reached neighbourhoods across Dhaka.
As Bangladesh reeled from days of unrest, the government intensified its crackdown. By 6:00pm on July 26, 2024, at least 738 more people had been arrested in the capital and several other districts in connection with the ongoing violence.
On July 25, 2024, two more individuals -- Zaman Mia, 19, a garment worker from Narsingdi, and Zakir Hossain, 29, a tailor shop employee from Rayerbagh --succumbed to their bullet wounds at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, according to hospital sources and their families.
At least 787 more people were arrested in the capital and other districts in the 36 hours leading up to 6:00pm on July 24, in connection with cases filed over violence across the country.
The US consul general in Karachi sent a telegram to the US State Department providing details of his meeting with Pakistan President Yahya Khan on May 22, 1971. As to the political situation in Pakistan, Yahya Khan affirmed his belief that the future of the wings were intertwined with the whole.
Pakistan today conceded that there had been violations of human rights in East Pakistan and that “as in all conflicts innocent people had suffered”.
The Pakistan military junta has failed to restore civil administration in areas under its control in Bangladesh despite desperate efforts and it would never be able to do so, Bangladesh Home Minister AHM Kamaruzzaman told UNI in an interview published in the Hindustan Times today.
UN Secretary General U Thant appealed today to all governments and private sources to send relief assistance for the Bangladesh refugees who had crossed over to India.
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi warned Pakistan today that India “is fully prepared to fight if the situation is forced on us”.
Tajuddin Ahmad, the prime minister of Bangladesh, issued an 18-point directive on May 14 outlining the tasks of the people in the Liberation Struggle. He urged that the people should not listen to rumours nor should they have doubts about the ultimate victory.
Any American economic aid to Pakistan “will leave cash in their hands to pay their French arms bill and to step up arms purchases in the open market”, Rehman Sobhan charged today, adding that the US should give no aid, except for relief to be dispensed by international agencies.
India and Pakistan agreed to accept Swiss help to repatriate their respective mission staff from Dhaka and Calcutta. This was the first time the two governments accepted a mediation offer by a third country for resolving the deadlock.
Syed Nazrul Islam, acting president of the provisional government of Bangladesh, today assured the countrymen that the promises and pledges given by the Awami League would be fulfilled and the country would be taken towards the path of socialism.
The Pakistan government was reported ready to carry out recommendations of the United States, the World Bank, the international Monetary Fund and other international donors for a 100 percent devaluation of its currency, from 4.6 rupees to the dollar to more nearly 9, 10 or 11.
