How peaceful Bangladesh quota protests morphed into nationwide unrest

Government crackdown and attacks by ruling party supporters triggered one of the biggest protests against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – For three days, Ahsan Habib, a private university student, was on the streets of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka protesting against what he believes was a “violent assault” by police and ruling party supporters against common people like him.

The student protests seeking reform of the government’s job quota system have morphed into nationwide violent unrest, with demands for holding the government accountable for the loss of lives over the past week.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court scrapped most of the quotas , saying that 93 percent of government jobs will now be based on merit. But student leaders have pledged to carry on with the protests, demanding the release of jailed protesters and the resignation of officials, including Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, who they say are responsible for the violence that left at least 131 people dead.

Al Jazeera spoke to medics and a network of journalists to compile a death toll, as authorities have not released casualty figures so far. Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, the two largest Bengali language and English dailies, have reported 146 and 127 deaths, respectively.

More than 70 percent of the deaths have been reported from Dhaka, where streets are strewn with the remnants of thousands of rounds of tear-gas shells, sound grenades, shotgun pellets, rubber bullets and brick chunks.

Aside from two policemen and two ruling party supporters, all of the deceased are either students or ordinary people.

“We were fighting against bullets with brick chunks,” said Habib, who joined protests in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur area on Tuesday. “There were