Anti-quota demonstrators clash with police and Awami League supporters at the Rampura area in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Reuters

Sheikh Hasina Wazed is a democratically elected leader of Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh have trusted her leadership and made her prime minister of Bangladesh with a huge majority. I am sure the government of Sheikh Hasina Wazed is fully loyal and capable of addressing the core issues of students and resolve protesters’ demands peacefully (“Communications widely disrupted in Bangladesh as student protests spike,” July 19, Gulf Today website).

According to the report, telecommunications were widely disrupted in Bangladesh on Friday amid violent student protests against quotas for government jobs in which nearly two dozen people have been killed this week. French news agency AFP reported that the death toll in Thursday’s violence had risen to 32.

In any democratic country it’s a right of people to protest and demand the government to address their legal grievances. The civilian government should address the legal demands of young Bangladeshi students who are protesting in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka for many days instead of using the state machinery against them and crushing the protest movement ruthlessly.

Abdul Qayoom,

By email