Why Are There Protests in Bangladesh Again?

Bangladesh army personnel stand guard during a curfew following clashes between police and Anti-Discrimination Student Movement activists amid anti-government protests in the Shahbag area of Dhaka on August 5, 2024. (AFP)
Bangladesh army personnel stand guard during a curfew following clashes between police and Anti-Discrimination Student Movement activists amid anti-government protests in the Shahbag area of Dhaka on August 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Why Are There Protests in Bangladesh Again?

Bangladesh army personnel stand guard during a curfew following clashes between police and Anti-Discrimination Student Movement activists amid anti-government protests in the Shahbag area of Dhaka on August 5, 2024. (AFP)
Bangladesh army personnel stand guard during a curfew following clashes between police and Anti-Discrimination Student Movement activists amid anti-government protests in the Shahbag area of Dhaka on August 5, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh is on the boil again with close to 100 people killed on Sunday as protesters, calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's resignation, clashed with security forces and supporters of the ruling party.

Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence touched off by student groups protesting against reserved quotas in government jobs.

Here are details of the new protests and their history:

CALLS FOR HASINA TO STEP DOWN

The "Students Against Discrimination" group, which was at the forefront of last month's job quota protests, is leading the latest demonstrations.

The protests to reform the quota system paused after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas on July 21. Protesters, however, returned last week demanding a public apology from Hasina for the violence, restoration of internet connections, reopening of college and university campuses and release of those arrested.

By the weekend, the demonstrations spiraled into a campaign seeking Hasina's ouster as demonstrators demanded justice for people killed last month.

The students' group called for a nationwide non-cooperation movement starting Sunday with a single-point agenda - Hasina must resign.

WHY DO PROTESTERS WANT HASINA'S RESIGNATION?

The protesters blame Hasina's government for the violence during the protests in July. Hasina's critics and rights groups have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge the government denies.

WHAT HAS HASINA SAID RECENTLY?

Hasina, 76, and her government initially said students were not involved in the violence during the quota protests and blamed the Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for the clashes and arson.

But after violence erupted again on Sunday, Hasina said that "those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation".

The students group has declined Hasina's offer for talks to resolve the crisis.

WHAT TRIGGERED THE JOB-QUOTA PROTESTS?

Demonstrations started at university campuses in June after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs, overturning a 2018 decision by Hasina's government to scrap it.

The Supreme Court suspended the high court order after the government's appeal and then dismissed the lower court order last month, directing that 93% of jobs should be open to candidates on merit.

FLAGGING ECONOMY, UNEMPLOYMENT

Experts also attribute the current unrest in Bangladesh to stagnant job growth in the private sector, making public sector jobs, with their accompanying regular wage hikes and privileges, very attractive.

The quotas sparked anger among students grappling with high youth unemployment, as nearly 32 million young people are out of work or education in a population of 170 million.

The flagging economy, once among the world's fastest growing on the back of the country's booming garments sector, has stagnated. Inflation hovers around 10% per annum and dollar reserves are shrinking.

HASINA WINS JANUARY ELECTION

Hasina retained power for a fourth straight term in a January general election boycotted by BNP, which accused her Awami League of trying to legitimize sham elections.

BNP said 10 million party workers were on the run ahead of the election with nearly 25,000 arrested following deadly anti-government protests on Oct. 28. Hasina blamed the BNP for instigating anti-government protests that rocked Dhaka ahead of the election and left at least 10 people dead.



Experts: Spy Network within Hezbollah Has Helped Israel Assassinate Top Members

This picture released on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 by Hezbollah Military Media shows Fouad Shukur a Hezbollah top commander who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit a building on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (Hezbollah Military Media vía AP)
This picture released on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 by Hezbollah Military Media shows Fouad Shukur a Hezbollah top commander who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit a building on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (Hezbollah Military Media vía AP)
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Experts: Spy Network within Hezbollah Has Helped Israel Assassinate Top Members

This picture released on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 by Hezbollah Military Media shows Fouad Shukur a Hezbollah top commander who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit a building on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (Hezbollah Military Media vía AP)
This picture released on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 by Hezbollah Military Media shows Fouad Shukur a Hezbollah top commander who was killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit a building on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. (Hezbollah Military Media vía AP)

Several questions have been raised about Israel's ability to assassinate top Hezbollah operatives. The latest was the assassination on Tuesday of top commander Fouad Shukur in the party’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Many people have wondered how Israel has managed to pinpoint Shukur’s exact location at a time when Hezbollah commanders should be exercising extreme caution after Israel vowed to avenge the killing of 12 youths in an attack on Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights over the weekend. Hezbollah has denied its involvement in the strike.

Wealth of information

Founder and CEO of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) Riad Kahwaji told Asharq Al-Awsat that several advanced technologies are used in spy operations, such as monitoring mobile phones, face recognition cameras, drones and satellites.

However, this technology is useless to the Israelis without information about members of Hezbollah, such where they live, their telephone number and how they actually look like, he explained.

Informants and spies are on the ground to help in these assassinations, he stressed.

“Assuming that Hezbollah leaders are not using mobile phones, the only way to know that Shukur was in the targeted building was if someone had followed him and informed the Israelis of his location,” he went on to say.

There is no doubt that Israel has greatly infiltrated Hezbollah and knows its security measures, allowing it to have committed this number of assassinations of senior figures, as well as members who are not known to the public, but only to the party, Kahwaji said.

Network of agents

Retired general George Nader agrees with Kahwaji that Hezbollah has been infiltrated by a complex network of spies.

Without this network, how could Israeli drones have possibly targeted a Hezbollah member as soon as he crossed a certain location? he wondered in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat.

No regular person could possibly know the movement of these commanders and their locations. These networks of agents are inside the party in Lebanon, as well as in Syria and Iran, he stated.

Lax measures

Head of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies retired Brigadier General Dr. Hisham Jaber noted that there are a number of factors that have led to the success of Israeli assassinations.

Hezbollah has been breached and its agents have infiltrated the party, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

The Israelis also have data on all the Lebanese people, including members of the resistance [Hezbollah] and its leaders. It boasts advanced technology, satellites and the support of American and European intelligence.

Lax security measures by some members of Hezbollah are also another factor that have led to assassinations, he remarked.

Given the tensions in wake of the Majdal Shams attack, a senior member such as Shukur should not have been at his home or at a place he often frequents, he explained.

Notable assassinations

Israel has succeeded since November in carrying out a number of assassinations against Hezbollah.

In November, it assassinated the son of Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad and four others, who are members of the al-Radwan unit. They were killed in a drone strike that targeted a house they were in.

On January 2, Israel assassinated leading Hamas member Saleh al-Arouri in a strike in the heart of Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs. It fired rockets at an apartment where he was meeting with Qassam Brigades field commanders.

Days later, on January 8, Israel succeeded in killing Radwan unit commander Wissam Taweel while he was returning home to a southern Lebanon village. It killed prominent members Taleb Abdullah in June and Mohammed Nasser in July.