Dhaka: Majority of protest deaths are children and young people

This is a partial figure calculated only on the deaths so far confirmed while investigations continue to establish a definitive count. The unrest in recent weeks has also spread to the outlying areas of the capital. Yesterday Christians gathered in prayer for the victims.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - 75% of those who died in clashes between police and protesters in Bangladesh were children or teenagers. A figure has emerged from information provided by hospitals and relatives of the victims: a total of 210 people were killed, including 113 minors and young people, although detailed information on age, occupation and cause of death is only available for 150 people, most of whom died after bullet wounds.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed a death toll of 147, but several national and international campaigns claim that the final number could be much higher, up to more than 500. The count was made difficult for several reasons and also by the fact that some bodies were taken from hospitals by relatives before post-mortem examinations.

Local newspapers told the stories of some of the minors involved in the riots, which broke out because of the readmission of quotas in public employment for the descendants of those who fought in the liberation war, but soon turned into anti-government protests.

Ifat, 16, was killed in Jatrabari, an area of Dhaka, on 20 July. He was helping an injured person in the street when he was shot. His mother, Kamrun Nahar, said: ‘My son did not commit any crime. He was just trying to help’.

Even a four-year-old boy, Abdul Ahad, was killed by a bullet on the same day. Locked with his parents in a flat in the Rayerbagh area, he was shot in the eye after moving to the balcony attracted by outside noises. "Everything happened in the blink of an eye. I lost my beloved child. What more can I say about this?’ the father told the local media.

Riya Gop, a six-year-old girl from Narayanganj, was also playing on the roof of her house when she was hit in the head by a bullet. Rushed to Dhaka Medical College, she died five days later on 25 July.

The clashes that took place on 20 July also reached Savar, one of the capital's suburbs, in the afternoon. Saad Mahmud, 14, was shot in the left leg after pushing himself near the area of the riots.

In connection with the recent violence, about 200 cases have been filed at various police stations throughout Dhaka. There are more than 213,000 charges, most of them against unknown persons. According to court documents, police have arrested more than 2,500 people, including political activists and students, in the last 12 days.

Mumtaz Nahar, the mother of Nahid Islam - one of the coordinators of the quota reform movement - called for her son to be released: ‘The children are safe with their parents. What security is there in the DB office? Give me back my son." Nahid and three other protest leaders were arrested by the police and taken to the Dhaka Metropolitan Detective (DB) office. The mother, she continued, fears that Nahid may be tortured again during detention.

Meanwhile, six coordinators of the student movement, also in custody in Dhaka, announced the end of the demonstrations in a video sent to the media last night. An announcement that, as many university students pointed out on social media, was probably made under duress following threats from the police.

Bangladeshi Christians yesterday held a celebration in memory of the victims. Nirmol Rozario, secretary of the Christian Religious Welfare Trust and president of the Bangladesh Christian Association, called for prayer in a press release, in which he also expressed his condolences to the students' families and prayed for the injured, condemned the violence and called for a thorough investigation into each death.

• Banglades
• protests
• children
• young people