An example of how the student movement was hijacked by the ‘third party'—the BNP-Jamaat terrorists.
Bangladesh Television (BTV) is one of the key point installations in Dhaka. When the BTV came under attack on July 18th, I was in my office. I had received a call from the DG of BTV and a few other employees with a shaky and fearful voice that it was attacked by the terrorists who were setting fire and vandalizing their office rooms. The lives of the BTV employees were threatened. The terrorists also vandalized the CCCT cameras and the related equipment.
To our utter surprise, even after sending some police officers, the terrorists did not leave the place but rather surrounded the police and started threatening them. The police did not use any lethal weapons.
The employees from inside the BTV were terrified and were asking for help to save them. They were desperately wanting us to send the law enforcement members to go there in larger numbers and use the lethal weapons to defend their lives. At that time, even the lives of the members of the law enforcement were at serious risk. Yet, the police showed the highest order of restraint.
Because of the repeated attack from the anarchists, eventually the clashes broke out, and as a consequence of that, it resulted in some unwanted casualties. The attackers and attackers cannot be blamed equally for any casualty as a consequence of the clash that was initiated by the attackers in the first place.
Nevertheless, a judicial committee has been constituted, and all the casualties will be investigated thoroughly, and anyone responsible will be brought to book.
We have been off the internet for the last few days. The terrorists burned down the data center and the fiber-optic cables in different parts of the country. We had an internet outage throughout the country. We are trying to restore the internet, but it was severely damaged. Now we have been able to restore some communication lines for the information ministry. I am posting this message using this emergency line. Technical people are working heart and soul to have the internet up and running very soon.
Amidst tons of misinformation and a well-organized disinformation campaign orchestrated around the world by a well-known syndicate, people all over the world are getting confused about what happened in Bangladesh around the quota reform movement.
The fact of the matter is that the country is under attack. Let me give you the context.
The government made a declaration to remove all quotas in 2018. Later on, in June 2024, at the high court verdict, the government's declaration on quota got canceled. The government appealed to the appeals division of the Supreme Court against the high court verdict. At the same time, a section of the students started demonstrating on the street against the high court verdict. The government was fighting for the same cause in court as the quota reform protesters (students) were demanding on the street. The positions of the quota reform protesters and the government were on the same page. Now, there are also communication channels established between the government and the leaders of the quota protesters. In the meantime, we saw some third parties invade the movement and start attacking hundreds and thousands of government properties and institutions.
The leaders of the quota-reform movement have denounced the arson, violence, and terrorist acts done by a third party who invaded their non-violent and non-political movement and carried out the destructive acts. The government has a responsibility to protect people's lives, livelihoods, and public and private properties. The quota issue is being resolved peacefully through discussion with the students. But those who are carrying out the criminal acts, i.e., BNP-Jamaat Islamic radicals, are being dealt with through lawful measures.