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 rancor at home and international criticism abroad.
A day after police freed six top members of the group which organized 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 said 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.
They have also insisted that the government reopen schools and universities around the country, all of which were shuttered at the height of the unrest.
Many protesters have gone further, demanding Hasina step down altogether.
“She must go,” writer and activist Arup Rahee said from a rally in the capital. “There will be no justice for the student murders if she remains in power.”
Internet outage monitor Netblocks reported that service providers had again restricted access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, all used last month to organize protests.
“We were instructed by the authorities to block Facebook,” said an official from one phone company, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota scheme — since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court — that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.
Critics say the quota system was used to stack public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League.
Last month’s protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile Internet network for 11 days to restore order.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week condemned the police clampdown that followed for “excessive and lethal force against protesters and others,” urging an independent investigation into their conduct.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters last weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings.
At least 32 children were among those killed last month, the UN children’s agency said Friday.
Diplomats said Hasina’s government had approached the United Nations to assist with its own probe into the unrest but had been rebuffed.
“The UN called for an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into all alleged human rights violations,” a United Nations official said on condition of anonymity.
“The UN, however, does not support national investigations in the way that is being suggested.”
Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests
https://arab.news/jwkmm
Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

- Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem that killed at least 206 people last month
- The violence was some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure
Floods, landslides kill at least 11 in India’s Jammu region

- An intense monsoon rainstorm in the Indian-administered territory since Tuesday has caused widespread chaos
- Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season
An intense monsoon rainstorm in the Indian-administered territory since Tuesday has caused widespread chaos, with raging water smashing into bridges and swamping homes.
A local disaster official said that Ramban and Reasi districts were hit by heavy rainfall and landslides on Friday night, killing 11 people.
One child aged five was trapped in the debris and still missing, he added.
On Wednesday, a landslide slammed the pilgrimage route to the Hindu shrine of Vaishno Devi in Jammu, killing 41 people.
India’s Meteorological Department said the torrential rain had smashed records at two locations in the region.
Jammu and Udhampur recorded their highest 24-hour rainfall on Wednesday, with 296 millimeters (11.6 inches) in Jammu, nine percent higher than the 1973 record, and 629.4 mm (24.8 inches) in Udhampur – a staggering 84 percent surge over the 2019 mark.
Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact.
Climate experts from the Himalayan-focused International Center for Integrated Mountain Development warn that a spate of disasters illustrates the dangers when extreme rain combines with mountain slopes weakened by melting permafrost, as well as building developments in flood-prone valleys.
Powerful torrents driven by intense rain smashed into Chisoti village in Indian-administered Kashmir on August 14, killing at least 65 people and leaving another 33 missing.
Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India’s Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has not been confirmed.
Thailand power vacuum will ‘not affect’ border security: defense ministry

- Constitutional Court sacked prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over her handling of a border row with Cambodia
BANGKOK: Thailand’s lack of a formal government will not affect border security with Cambodia, the defense ministry said Saturday, as the kingdom scrambles to fill a power vacuum following the dismissal of the prime minister by the Constitutional Court.
The Southeast Asian nation was thrown into political turmoil on Friday when the court sacked prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over her handling of a border row with Cambodia, saying she had “not upheld the ethical code of conduct.”
The ruling has left Thailand with an acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, and a caretaker cabinet which will stay on until a new government is formed as early as next week.
On Saturday morning the acting cabinet held a special meeting confirming the arrangement, with no new major announcements.
Deputy Defense Minister Natthapon Nakpanich said having an acting government would “not affect” the country’s ability to safeguard its sovereignty amid a fragile ceasefire at the border with Cambodia.
“It’s not a problem. The army chief has already assigned responsibilities to handle specific situations,” he told reporters.
Paetongtarn, daughter of billionaire ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was suspended from office last month after being accused of failing to stand up for Thailand in a June call with powerful former Cambodian leader Hun Sen, which was leaked online.
In July, tensions between Thailand and Cambodia spiralled into the two sides’ deadliest military clashes in decades, with more than 40 people killed and 300,000 forced to flee their homes along the border.
Thailand and Cambodia’s leaders agreed to an “unconditional” ceasefire at the end of July, after five days of combat along their jungle-clad frontier.
A nine-judge panel in the Constitutional Court ruled by six to three on Friday that Paetongtarn had not upheld the ethical standards required of a prime minister and removed her from office.
The ruling, which also dissolved her cabinet, came a year after the same court ousted her predecessor as prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, in an unrelated ethics case.
Paetongtarn was the sixth prime minister from the political movement founded by her father to face judgment by the Constitutional Court.
Parliament will vote on a new prime minister perhaps as early as next week, but there is no obvious replacement for Paetongtarn waiting to take over.
Parties have been eager to meet and strategise ways to secure a majority vote in parliament for their own candidates.
Under the constitution, only candidates nominated for prime minister at the last general election in 2023 are eligible.
Four of those names are out of the running, three of whom are banned by court order and one whose party failed to get enough MPs elected to qualify.
The remaining four include Prayut Chan-O-Cha, an ex-general who led a 2014 coup and served as prime minister until 2023, and Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the Bhumjaithai party which was a former partner in Paetongtarn’s coalition government.
EU’s Kallas says Russia won’t get frozen assets back without paying reparations

- Some $245.85 billion of Russian assets are frozen in the bloc under sanctions imposed on Moscow
- Members have called for the EU to confiscate the assets and use them to support Kyiv
COPENHAGEN: European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Saturday it was not possible to imagine giving back Russian assets frozen inside the bloc due to the war in Ukraine unless Moscow has paid reparations.
“We can’t possibly imagine that ... if ... there is a ceasefire or peace deal that these assets are given back to Russia if they haven’t paid for the reparations,” she told reporters before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.
The EU says some 210 billion euros ($245.85 billion) of Russian assets are frozen in the bloc under sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine and some EU countries, including Poland and the Baltic states, have called for the EU to confiscate the assets and use them to support Kyiv.
But EU heavyweights France and Germany – along with Belgium, which holds most of the assets – have rebuffed such calls.
They have pointed out that the EU has earmarked future profits from the assets to repay support for Ukraine and questioned whether there is a legal basis to confiscate them.
Diplomats say the debate is now turning to how the funds might be used, after the war in Ukraine comes to a halt.
At least 70 killed in capsize of migrant boat off West Africa, Gambia says

- Another 30 people are feared dead after the vessel sank off the coast of Mauritania early on Wednesday
- Gambia’s foreign affairs ministry implored its nationals to ‘refrain from embarking on such perilous journeys’
At least 70 people were killed when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of West Africa, Gambia’s foreign affairs ministry said late on Friday, in one of the deadliest accidents in recent years along a popular migration route to Europe.
Another 30 people are feared dead after the vessel, believed to have departed from Gambia and carrying mostly Gambian and Senegalese nationals, sank off the coast of Mauritania early on Wednesday, the ministry said in a statement.
It was carrying an estimated 150 passengers, 16 of whom had been rescued. Mauritanian authorities recovered 70 bodies on Wednesday and Thursday, and witness accounts suggest over 100 may have died, the statement said.
The Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands, typically used by African migrants trying to reach Spain, is one of the world’s deadliest.
More than 46,000 irregular migrants reached the Canary Islands last year, a record, according to the European Union. More than 10,000 died attempting the journey, a 58 percent increase over 2023, according to the rights group Caminando Fronteras.
Gambia’s foreign affairs ministry implored its nationals to “refrain from embarking on such perilous journeys, which continue to claim the lives of many.”
Federal judge issues order blocking Trump effort to expand speedy deportations of migrants

- Setback for the Republican administration’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute
- The effort has triggered lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups
WASHINGTON: A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants detained in the interior of the United States.
The move is a setback for the Republican administration’s efforts to expand the use of the federal expedited removal statute to quickly remove some migrants in the country illegally without appearing before a judge first.
President Donald Trump promised to engineer a massive deportation operation during his 2024 campaign if voters returned him to the White House. And he set a goal of carrying out 1 million deportations a year in his second term.
But US District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., suggested the Trump administration’s expanded use of the expedited removal of migrants is trampling on individuals’ due process rights.
“In defending this skimpy process, the Government makes a truly startling argument: that those who entered the country illegally are entitled to no process under the Fifth Amendment, but instead must accept whatever grace Congress affords them,” Cobb wrote in a 48-page opinion issued Friday night. “Were that right, not only noncitizens, but everyone would be at risk.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced shortly after Trump came to office in January that it was expanding the use of expedited removal, the fast-track deportation of undocumented migrants who have been in the US less than two years.
The effort has triggered lawsuits by the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights groups.
Before the Trump administration’s push to expand such speedy deportations, expedited removal was only used for migrants who were stopped within 100 miles of the border and who had been in the US for less than 14 days.
Cobb, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, didn’t question the constitutionality of the expedited removal statute, or its application at the border.
“It merely holds that in applying the statute to a huge group of people living in the interior of the country who have not previously been subject to expedited removal, the Government must afford them due process,” she writes.
Cobb earlier this month agreed to temporarily block the Trump administration’s efforts to expand fast-track deportations of immigrants who legally entered the US under a process known as humanitarian parole — a ruling that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.
In that case the judge said Homeland Security exceeded its statutory authority in its effort to expand expedited removal for many immigrants. The judge said those immigrants are facing perils that outweigh any harm from “pressing pause” on the administration’s plans.
Since May, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have positioned themselves in hallways to arrest people after judges accept government requests to dismiss deportation cases. After the arrests, the government renews deportation proceedings but under fast-track authority.
Although fast-track deportations can be put on hold by filing an asylum claim, people may be unaware of that right and, even if they are, can be swiftly removed if they fail an initial screening.