As many as 147 people died in violence during violence following quota reform protests, said Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday.
“As many as 147 deaths have so far been reported and police members, Awami League leaders and activists, students and people of different professions were among the deceased,” he said while talking to reporters at the secretariat.
Further search is underway to determine the death toll.
Police are working to determine how many women, men and people of different professions were among the dead, said the minister.
Students and job seekers began protests demanding reform in government job quota began on July 1. After the students’ clashes with police and Chhatra League activists on Dhaka University campus on July 15, violence spread all over the country.
Meanwhile, cadres of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami infiltrated into the protest programme leading to violent clashes. The cadres also carried out various sabotage activities through arson attacks on different Key Point Installations (KPIs) like the metro rail, BTB, Mohakhali Data Centre, railway establishments, BRTA and office buildings. Quota reform coordinators to be released when risk free
Besides, the Home Minister on Sunday said that quota reform coordinators are not arrested and they freed after confirming their safety and security.
“Quota reform coordinators were not arrested. If police think that they are risk free then coordinators will be released,” he told journalists at a short briefing at his ministry office.
When asked regarding six coordinators of the anti-quota movement Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker and Nusrat Tabassum were taken into custody by Detective Branch (DB) of police, Kamal said they told social media that they were at risk. “So they have been brought for their safety, not arrested.”
The law enforcement agencies always ensure security to common people as well as quota reform coordinators, the home minister said.
