At this moment, the government's sincerity in resolving the crisis engulfing the nation is what every citizen in Bangladesh is eagerly looking out for. While the curfew has been on, it may have gained an impression that things have calmed down, and that it has succeeded in dealing with the unprecedented level of anger that kept escalating over the course of the bloody July we've just witnessed, particularly its second half. But there is no doubt that the overall situation remains tense, and may deteriorate with one careless mistake. It must be handled delicately, for the anger still remains, and it can ignite again.

Unfortunately, the government has so far failed to inspire confidence in its sensitivity and commitment to resolving the situation in a manner that can return the country to peace anytime soon. It continues to completely ignore the 9-point demands of the students who waged the quota reform movement, in the aftermath of the deadly turn it took after the Awami League's student front, the Chhatra League, entered the fray on the night of July 14, and throughout the next day. The security agencies' block raids and mass arrests continue to distress the people, especially in areas with large student populations. It has decided on a narrative as to what happened and why, and is working to establish it, rather than starting from a clean slate and working to establish the truth.

The latest iteration of this narrative was delivered on Thursday (August 1) by the foreign secretary, who was joined by the prime minister's newly appointed press secretary, Nayeemul Islam Khan, in a briefing to foreign envoys based in Dhaka. Despite repeated assurances of appropriate measures by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina through a televised address on July 17, the BNP-Jamaat combine instigated unrest and violence among a section of the student community by provoking inflammatory rhetoric and slogans, including by distorting the Prime Minister's words at a press conference (on her China visit July 14), MoFA said.

The situation soon spiralled out of control of the protesting students, and led to unprecedented levels of violence, anarchy and brutalities that can only be termed as terrorist activities. These resulted in the most tragic and egregious loss of a number of civilian lives, including 'some' young people and minors, MoFA said.

It has now surfaced that the perpetrators of the terror attacks were given assurance of "bounty" for killing law enforcement personnel and ruling party affiliates, the government told the diplomats.

There were calculated attacks against a number of Key Point Installations and other public properties, notably metro rail stations and elevated expressway; public health facilities; disaster management office; national broadcasting facility like Bangladesh Television headquarters; firefighting vehicles, and digital connectivity including national data centre, central broadband infrastructure and optical fibre networks.

The targeted breaching of a high-security prison and setting free nine convicted militants were part of an attempt to roll back the decade-long gains in containing terrorism and violent extremism, MoFA said at the meeting.

"We have presented the latest information to them and shown videos. As we have reported, the RAB did not fire from the helicopter. Besides, I have highlighted the role of BGB and police during the movement. We have provided the video to them also," the foreign secretary said.

Diplomats from 22 countries including the United Kingdom, United States, China, Japan, Sweden, Qatar, Denmark, Switzerland, India, Russia, Canada, Australia, France, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, European Union, and the representatives from the United Nations attended the briefing.

In line with this narrative, the government's big move this week was to issue a circular banning Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir. With this announcement, the activities of the party that opposed independence are now prohibited. For a long time, various groups, including freedom fighters, have been demanding the ban on Jamaat's politics.

Now, through an executive order under Section 18(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir, and their other affiliated organisations have been banned.

After receiving legal opinions on this matter from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Law Minister Anisul Huq told reporters that Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Chhatra Shibir, and all related organisations will no longer be allowed to engage in politics under these names.

Several government ministers have linked Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, to violence during the quota reform protests. This led the Awami League-led 14-party alliance, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to ban both organisations last Monday. This ban has now been formalised through an executive order.

The problem is that almost no one outside the government believes this was the step that was needed to address the current crisis.

Jamaat's registration was revoked in 2013 due to a court decision, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in November 2023. Additionally, several top Jamaat leaders have been executed for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War, and they are largely viewed as a spent force in the country. But the AL's political narrative refuses to move on - far worse, it insists on branding almost anyone who opposes it with the same brush.

Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, issued a statement strongly condemning and protesting against the executive order banning the political activities of his party. He instead accused the government of "orchestrating massacres through party cadres and law enforcement to suppress the student community's non-political protests."

Out of touch

The government has been bungling its response in so many ways, it has left analysts incredulous. Its detectives have picked up coordinators of the movement at different times and subjected them to torture. Six of them spent almost the entire last week in the Detective Branch's custody, that it said was for their protection.

A day after their release from Detective Branch (DB) custody, six coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Students' Movement issued a joint statement on Friday morning saying that they had been held captive "forcibly" for seven days in the name of "safety".

Urging the country's students and citizens to take to the streets ignoring the government's "propaganda and oppression," they vowed to continue the movement demanding justice for the slain students and other citizens and release of detained innocent people.

The joint statement was signed by coordinators Md Nahid Islam, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, Asif Mahmud, Nusrat Tabassum and Abu Baker Majumder.

"The coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Students' Movement have been abducted, arrested, tortured and harassed since July 19 mainly to disperse the movement and leadership. In continuation of this, six coordinators were forcibly detained in DB custody for seven days in the name of 'security'. Although the Home Minister and the DB chief talked about security, we were kept in DB custody to isolate us from the movement," according to the statement.

"We wanted guarantee of our freedom of expression. But we were kept in DB custody unconstitutionally and illegally. At first, they talked about security, but later they mentioned the court. We can't leave without a court order," read the statement.

No one remains safe in the custody of those who kill unarmed students and citizens and the coordinators didn't want such "false security" from the government. Rather, they wanted justice for their slain brothers and sisters, it said.

"We didn't voluntarily give the video statement circulated from the DB office on withdrawing the movement. No decision on Anti-Discrimination Students' Movement can come from the DB office. No decision will be taken as final without the participation of all coordinators and agitating students across the country," according to the statement.

"At the DB office, we were forced to sit at the dining table and were filmed. Assuring us that we would be released, our families were called and made to sit for 13 hours, and false statements were made to the media. When our teachers came to meet us, they were not allowed to meet," it reads.

Coordinators Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker started a hunger strike at the DB office on July 30, protesting the unjust arrests of coordinators, and arrest and torture of students across the country. Later, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah and Nusrat Tabassum also started hunger strikes, it said.

Condemning the harassment to them and their families for the past seven days the coordinators said, "In the last seven days, various harassment, torture and drama have been staged with us and our families in the DB office."

"We were unjustly detained on the orders of the Home Minister. The government has put the law enforcers face to face with the students and citizens. The government is still continuing its repression of students and arresting and torturing demonstrating students across the country and obstructing peaceful programmes," it said.

On July 26, three coordinators Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder were picked up by DB from Dhaka's Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital. Nahid and Asif had been undergoing treatment at the hospital.

On the following day, coordinators Sarjis and Hasnat Abdullah were forcibly taken to the DB office from Science Lab, said the statement. In the early hours of July 28, Nusrat Tabassum was brought to the DB office from a relative's house.

Even before they were released, the entire nation saw through the farce. The DB chief, Harun Or Rashid, and Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, kept denying it. Now that the cat is out of the bag, surely one of the protesters' demands, the resignation of the home minister, should be a formality. But the government is not even acknowledging it.

Mass arrests continue

According to the latest count of arrests, at least 10,947 people, including students, BNP, and Jamaat-Shibir leaders and activists, have been arrested in 674 cases filed in the capital and 51 districts over the last 15 days since July 18.

Several thousand named and several hundred thousand unnamed individuals have been accused in these cases. The cases were filed, mostly by police, with different police stations over violence, vandalism, arson, and killings.

The case statements read that leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and their associate parties, at the behest of their top leadership, or the miscreants attacked police with firearms, explosives or lethal weapons. The incidents of killing took place by these criminals who were masquerading as quota protesters.

Shockingly, police are claiming that no one was killed in law enforcers' firing. Rather, people died in "bullets fired by terrorists or miscreants who remained hidden among the anti-quota protesters".

The video of the police's firing on Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed, the first victim of the movement on July 16, had drawn the ire of citizens almost immediately.

The statement of the case, filed by the police in connection with the death of Abu Sayeed, however, said he died at a stage of bullets being fired and brickbats thrown by the protestors.

Can the government investigate itself?

The Independent Researchers Alliance, Bangladesh on Wednesday, issued a statement questioning the legitimacy of the government, which has been in power for the past 15 years, and conducted a "massacre" in the name of quelling a student-led protest.

The statement was prompted by the observed brutal crackdown on recent quota protests initiated by university students and recent graduates.

The Alliance noted that since July 16, they have witnessed the Awami League-led government's violent response to "a peaceful protest that initially began with students and later garnered support from various groups and classes of people."

The alliance stated that the government's crackdown involved the deployment of various repressive state apparatuses, including the Bangladesh Chhatra League, police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guards (BGB), and military personnel.

These forces have been documented assaulting, beating, and shooting protesters. This violent response has resulted in at least 250 confirmed deaths, according to national and international media reports, with concerns that the actual toll could reach into the thousands.

"The fear is genuine, as most national media failed to portray the atrocities committed by the government amidst nationwide internet blackout and heavy censorship," said the statement.

The statement also highlighted that personal testimonies and social media documentation, including video and photographic evidence, reveal that the state-led violence constitutes what they termed one of the largest massacres ever perpetrated by a government within its own capital city.

They said the emotional impact is profound when "viewing videos of people being deliberately shot at close range or hearing witnesses describe the trauma of finding friends with fatal injuries."

In addition to this brutality, the statement reads, the government has deployed law enforcement and military forces "to abduct individuals and conduct block raids on homes during the night."

The alliance's statement noted that throughout this "ongoing state-led brutality, the Bangladeshi government and its agencies have persistently denied their criminal actions."

This includes rejecting recorded evidence of beatings, shootings, and killings in initial police reports (FIRs), dismissing such evidence in government press briefings by parliamentary members, and contradicting it through statements made by pro-government politicians and social or cultural elites in the media and on social platforms, they pointed out.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has offered to deploy an independent fact-finding team to assist the Bangladesh government in building trust among all stakeholders and to help de-escalate tensions.

"In these challenging times, my office is ready to support your efforts in resolving the current crisis," he said in a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on July 23.

The reports of violence against its citizens advocating for fundamental rights have serious implications not only domestically and in terms of Bangladesh's human rights obligations, but also for its international standing, Turk said.

"As one of the largest contributors to the United Nations peacekeeping missions, Bangladesh has consistently been a steadfast supporter of global peace and security. However, the use of excessive force, arbitrary arrests and tortures reported during the protests raise serious concern."

He also spoke about the use of bullets, arbitrary arrests, detention, ill-treatment and torture by the law enforcers and violent attacks by groups reportedly affiliated with the government.

The deployment of paramilitary units, such as the armoured police force, Border Guard Bangladesh and the Rapid Action Battalion, poses further risks, he said, adding that he is aware of arrests of the opposition figures.

Although Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has talked about involving the UN, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen in responding to Turk said he appreciates the concerns of the UN high commissioner for human rights, but noted that the briefs Turk received about the recent events appeared to have conflated a number of facts and issues.

The students' protest initially was peaceful, but turned violent as the "third forces" comprising BNP-Jamaat and extremist forces eventually infiltrated the movement, Momen said.

The situation was exacerbated to the extent that some lives were lost and certain egregious brutalities occurred under the cover of the students' movement, Momen said. Besides, huge public properties were also destroyed by the opposing political and extremist forces.

As part of the ongoing law and order drive, a number of suspected individuals including opposition political figures across the country have been arrested and taken into custody, Momen said.

"Regrettably, the overall investigation process has been made somewhat challenging due to the wide circulation of rumours and disinformation at home and abroad," Momen said.

He went on to request Turk's office to refrain from making any conclusive statements that may otherwise influence or shape public perception.