BREAKING NEWS: Indian Railways suspends all train operations to Bangladesh
New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Indian Railways on Monday suspended all train operations to Bangladesh amid the unrest in the neighbouring country. Sheikh Hasina has reportedly resigned as the Bangladesh Prime Minister and fled the country amid escalating student-led protests. The affected trains include the Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express (13109/13110), Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express (13107/13108), Kolkata-Khulna-Kolkata Bandhan Express, and Dhaka-New Jalpaiguri-Dhaka Mitali Express, which has been suspended since June 21. In an address to the nation on Monday, Bangladesh Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman announced that Sheikh Hasina has resigned as the Prime Minister and that an interim government will be formed soon. He also urged citizens to trust the Bangladesh Army, assuring them that the defence forces will ensure peace in the coming days. General Waker-Uz-Zaman also mentioned that he will be meeting President Mohammed Shahabuddin soon. These developments came after violent clashes between police and protesters resulted in over 100 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries on Sunday. “With yesterday’s count, the death toll in anti-government protests crossed 300 in just three weeks, making it the bloodiest period in the history of Bangladesh’s civil movement,” the country’s leading daily ‘The Daily Star’ reported. The student-led non-cooperation movement put immense pressure on the government led by Prime Minister Hasina over the past many weeks. The students had been protesting against a 30 per cent reservation in government jobs for relatives of freedom fighters who wrested independence for Bangladesh from Pakistan in a bloody civil war in 1971 in which, according to Dhaka officials, three million people were killed in the genocide by Pakistani troops and their supporters. After the Supreme Court slashed the reservations to 5 per cent, student leaders put the protests on hold, but the demonstrations flared up again because the students said the government ignored their call to release all their leaders, making the resignation of PM Hasina their primary demand. —
