Mir Riyanul Islam

Braving it out ... and blaming the opposition. Hasina's playbook. Will it work? The first indication of whether it will is to see what happens when the internet is restored - the country's ICT minister has said the government will likely put broadband (though not mobile) internet back online tonight. Most people in Bangladesh use mobile phones rather than computers to access social media/internet etc, but nonetheless it will be interesting to see what people being to post and its impact. In the past the Awami League government has managed to arrest its way out of difficult situations, that is to say it arrests hundreds/thousands of opposition activists and that simply stops the opposition from organising protests - and the government may try to do this agains. So far the police are saying that 532 people have been arrested including senior leaders of opposition BNP/Jamaat. In addition, the well respected Prothom Alo newspaper reports that 61,000 people have been charged with violence. It is unlikely that these are are 61,000 "named" people, but by not naming individuals in criminal cases, but by putting a number, the police can effectively arrest anyone they want and show them arrested in relation to one of these cases. A great way of arresting anyone who the authorities see as a troublemaker or threat. This is how it has been done before. However, in the past, it was only opposition activists involved in protests and that is far from the case here - in fact it is not clear at all whether opposition activists and leaders were involved that much with the protests - and so the question is whether the police will start arresting students in large numbers. This may be far more difficult for the government to do and get away with.