Bangladesh: Dozens of children killed in protests – Unicef

At least 32 children have died during scholar protests that engulfed Bangladesh last month, the UN’s children’s company has said.

According to a Unicef director, the youngest child who died was still in his fifth year of birth, adding that the majority of the victims were spectators.

According to statistics provided by BBC Bangla, they were one of more than 200 individuals who were killed in civil service demonstrations against work restrictions.

The quota system has now been scaled back by the government following a Supreme Court ruling, but students have continued protesting – now demanding justice for those who died or have been injured or detained.

The state is struggling to contain the rising tide of rage over how it first handled the demonstrations, despite the smaller scale of the protests.

Why are our boys buried in the murders ‘ yards and the murders hiding out? asked a group which had gathered outside the largest dome in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, following Friday prayer, according to the AFP news agency.

According to Reuters news organization, safety makes responded to the tens of thousands of people strewn with rubber bullets and tear gas. It reported that at least 20 people were injured.

Unicef’s regional director for southern Asia, Sanjay Wijesekera, acknowledged that he had been informed of information of children being detained while on a trip to Bangladesh this year.

He continued, claiming that the organization had declared” a horrible reduction” of the 32 deaths.

One child under five and one infant between six and twelve were among the most fatalities, according to a UN agency spokesperson.

” Kids must be protected at all times”, Mr Wijesekera said. ” That is one’s duty”.

Mohammad Ali Arafat, the government’s young information minister, responded that there is no data on the death toll from Unicef.

” We do n’t know where they] Unicef ] got the numbers from”, he told the BBC, adding:” Our position is clear: Whoever has been killed, we are going to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book”.

According to specialists who spoke to the BBC, many of the dead and injured suffered gunshot wounds as a result of security forces ‘ use of excessive force to halt the first protests.

However, the government has attributed the unrest to political critics, who have claimed a number of police officers were killed as well.

On Thursday, it banned the government’s major Islamist gathering- Jamaat-e-Islami and its student aircraft, Islami Chhatra Shibir- which it claimed was behind some of the violence.

” We have proof that they have participated in the deaths and in the loss of government and private parameters”, Anisul Huq, Bagladesh’s law secretary, told the BBC.

The opposition group’s chief described the proceed as “illegal, illegal and unconstitutional”.

According to officials, the scholar protest’s leaders were also taken for a week for their own safety. However, their discharge on Thursday has done much to soften the anger.

The kids questioned the conditions of their confinement in a mutual statement released on Friday.

The group alleged “harassment, rape and crisis” towards them and their families during their seven nights of confinement.

The statement called on people to continue taking to the streets and said,” No one is safe in the prison of those who kill armed students and individuals.”

Since the authorities began cracking down on the rallies, apparently, almost 10,000 people have been detained.

However, the student officials’ statements Mr. Arafat refrained from refuting.

He claimed that because the government was conscious of a possible threat to their lives, the authorities were forced to detain the scholar leaders.

” Their defense became our best priority”, he added.