Seventeen-year-old Shafiq Uddin Ahmed Ahnaf, a student of BAF Shaheen College, lost his life after being shot during a violent clash in the student-led revolution. The incident occurred on August 4, during the movement demanding the resignation of the Sheikh Hasina-led government. According to Ahnaf’s mother, Zartaj Parveen, her son was struck by a bullet around 5 pm that day. "From the very beginning of the protests, Ahnaf would join the students. He never listened to us when we asked him to stay away. He had already been injured before by tear gas and rubber bullets, but that didn’t stop him from going back," the grieving mother said, recounting her son’s unwavering commitment to the cause. On the morning of August 4, Ahnaf contacted his friends as soon as he woke up, preparing to join the protest despite his mother’s pleas. "I told him he absolutely couldn't go out that day and asked him to join me for the long march the next day instead. But he insisted, saying he had to go. After lunch, he left without telling me," she recalled. Ahnaf had a passion for playing guitar and football. "That day, he was supposed to return home and play music with his cousin," Zartaj added, her voice breaking. Throughout the day, she kept calling her son to check on him. "He answered my calls and said he was at 60 Feet in Dhaka. He assured me he was safe. But when I called again 30 minutes later, he said he was at Mirpur 10. I was worried because he had promised not to go there. I reminded him that a curfew was about to start, but he kept saying he was safe." 17-year-old injured during quota reform protest dies at DMCH

A clash erupted between police and students of Brac University in the Badda area of Dhaka on Thursday (July 18, 2024) when the students gathered there as part of the ‘complete shutdown’ programme.  The situation turned worse as police fired several rounds of tear gas to disperse the students in the morning in front of the university campus. Witnesses said the university students started coming to the campus in the morning and took to the streets. ‘Complete Shutdown’: Protestors, police clash in Dhaka’s Uttara; police box and 2 buses vandalized As police chased them they went up to the gate of BRAC University. They came back together again and chased the policemen, triggering a clash. The students chased the policemen to Badda U-loop. However, additional police were deployed in the area to control the situation.   Deputy Officer-in-Charge Abdul Haq Abbasi of Badda Police Station confirmed the clash, stating that one police officer was injured and is receiving medical treatment. Students allege that police entered their campus and lobbed tear gas and sound grenades, resulting in several injuries, though the exact number is unknown. Shutdown cripples capital city amid clashes between police and protesters Apart from Brac University students, students from several nearby colleges and North South University also gathered, engaging in clashes with police. A tense situation has been prevailing with fears of further confrontations.

Firing teargas and rubber bullets riot police clashed with quota-reform protesters in different parts of the capital city in the first hours of Thursday (July 18, 2024) at the start of a nationwide complete shutdown. Riot police fought pitched battles with the protesters in Badda, Merul, Uttara, Dhamandi, Motijheel and Arambagh. Police used teargas shells and rubber bullets. Cocktails --home-made bombs-- rocked different parts of the city. The clashes also spread in the alleys of the residential areas causing panic among residents, eyewitnesses said. Private BRAC university at Badda and its surrounding areas turned into battle fields as students, including from schools took to the streets defying heavy presence of police and Border Guards of Bangladesh personnel. The government has deployed 229 BGB platoons to maintain law and order during the shutdown. No casualties have so far been reported during the first few hours of violence on Thursday. But an 18-year-old boy was reportedly killed in clashes at Jatrabari on Wednesday night raising the death toll from ongoing quota protests to seven. Read more: Violent clashes continue in Dhaka’s Jatrabari, Shanir Akhra areas during shutdown Hundreds have been injured in the first few days of clashes. Clashes between protesters, many carrying sticks, and riot police occurred at Uttara, where dozens of colleges and schools are located. At Uttara's Housebuilding area thousands of students, including women, blocked the main road connecting Tongi with the capital city. Carrying sticks the students have gathered from all educational institutions in the surrounding areas. No transport except rickshaws are seen here. After chases and counter-chases seen in the morning amid teargassing riot police seemed to have retreated down the road at Azampur. Read more: ‘Complete Shutdown’: Protestors, police clash in Dhaka’s Uttara; police box and 2 buses vandalized "We are not going anywhere until our demands are met," said a 16-year-old girl who has joined from a nearby English-medium school. UNB is withholding both the name of the girl and her school for their safety. During the shutdown the capital city's usual chaotic traffic was absent with a few BRTC double-decker buses opening on almost empty streets. Rickshaws ruled the streets in absence of public transports as commuters were seen walking to the destinations or standing on bus stations in the hope of catching a transport. The students called for the shutdown, shortly after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a televised speech on Wednesday evening called for restraint and urged the protesters to wait patiently until the Supreme Court verdict is delivered on the quota issue. She assured the students that they won't be disappointed with the upcoming verdict scheduled for the first week of next month. She also ordered a judicial enquiry into the killings during the protests to identify the culprits. Read more: Situation tense at Badda after students-police clash

Police imposed a curfew in Sri Lanka’s capital and surrounding areas on Friday, a day before a planned protest demanding the resignations of the country’s president and prime minister because of the economic crisis that has caused severe shortages of essential goods and disrupted people’s livelihoods. Hours before the curfew announcement, police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of protesting students wearing black clothes, holding black flags, shouting anti-government slogans and carrying banners saying “Enough — now go.” The protesters and other critics have said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is responsible for the economic crisis, the worst since the country's independence in 1948. They also blame Ranil Wickremesinghe, who became prime minister two months ago, for not delivering on promises to end the shortages. Civic and opposition activists have announced that thousands more protesters will gather in Colombo on Saturday. But the police announcement of the curfew said it took effect at 9 p.m. and will last until further notice in Colombo and its suburbs. The curfew announcement drew criticism from government opponents and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, which said the “curfew is blatantly illegal and a violation of the fundamental rights.” The bar association statement asked police to immediately withdraw what the association called an "illegal order” imposing the curfew. Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa called the curfew“a fraud." Read: Sri Lanka PM says talks with IMF difficult due to bankruptcy “Get on to the streets tomorrow. Defy the dictatorship and join with the people to make democracy victorious. Yes we can,” he said in a tweet. The U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, asked people to protest peacefully and asked the military and police “to grant peaceful protestors the space and security to do so.” “Chaos & force will not fix the economy or bring the political stability that Sri Lankans need right now,” Chung said in a tweet. Sri Lanka is nearly bankrupt and has suspended repayments of $7 billion in foreign debt due this year. It must pay back more than $5 billion annually until 2026. Its foreign reserves are nearly wiped out and it is unable to import food, fuel, cookng gas and medicine. A lack of fuel to run power stations has resulted in extended daily power cuts. People must stand in lines for hours to buy fuel and gas. The country has survived mostly on credit lines extended by neighboring India to buy fuel and other essentials. Because of the economic crisis, inflation has spiked and prices of essentials have soared, dealing a severe blow to poor and vulnerable groups. Due to the fuel and power shortages, schools have been shut for weeks and the government has asked state employees other than those in essential services to work from home. The country is negotiating with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout package, but Wickremesinghe said this week that the negotiations are difficult because Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt. He earlier said the country’s economy had “collapsed.” The economic crisis has triggered a political upheaval, with widespread anti-government protests. Protesters have blocked main roads to demand fuel, and people in some areas have fought over limited stocks. Also read: With no fuel and no cash, Sri Lanka keeps schools closed In Colombo, protesters have occupied the entrance to the president’s office for nearly three months to demand his resignation. They accuse him and his powerful family, which includes several siblings who until recently held Cabinet positions, of precipitating the crisis through corruption and misrule. Months of protests have nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa political dynasty that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. One of Rajapaksa’s brothers resigned as prime minister last month, and two other brothers and a nephew quit their Cabinet posts earlier.   President Rajapaksa has admitted he did not take steps to head off the economic collapse early enough, but has refused to leave office. It is nearly impossible to oust presidents under the constitution unless they resign on their own.  

Protests outside the Arizona Capitol over the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that ended with a volley of tear gas were variously described Saturday as either peaceful or driven by anarchists intent on destruction. Republican Senate President Karen Fann issued a news release describing it as a thwarted insurrection, while protesters called it a violent overreaction by police who they said acted without warning or justification. Arizona Department of Public Safety statements said state troopers launched the gas as some in a group of 7,000 to 8,000 people that rallied at the Capitol on Friday night were trying to break into the state Senate. Lawmakers were working to finish their yearly session. The vast majority of people were peaceful and state police said there were no arrests or injuries. While both abortion opponents and abortion rights backers were there, most of the crowd opposed the high court's decision. Police fired tear gas at about 8:30 p.m. as dozens of people pressed up against the glass wall at the front of the Senate building, chanting and waving signs backing the right to abortion. While most were peaceful, a handful of people were banging on the windows, and one person forcefully tried to kick in a sliding glass door. That's when SWAT team members with the Department of Public Safety stationed on the second floor of the old Capitol building fired the tear gas. READ: Palestinian march in Paris defies ban, is met by tear gas Video taken from inside the Senate lobby by Republican Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita showed the scene. Another she took moments later showed state police in riot gear forming a line inside the building, facing protesters on the other side of the glass. She said in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday morning that the protesters were clearly trying to enter the locked building. "They were aggressively banging on the windows in a way that at any moment it could break," Ugenti-Rita said. “This wasn’t a knock on a window. I mean, they were trying to break the windows.” Hundreds of protesters could been seen in her videos milling about the plaza between the House and Senate buildings, while about a hundred were closer, near the glass wall at the front of the Senate building. “There was no other conclusion than they were interested in being violent,” she added. "I have no other takeaway than that. I’ve seen many protests over my years, in many different sizes and forms. I’ve never seen that ever.” Democratic state Rep. Athena Salman of Tempe, however, said those gassed were peaceful. “A bunch of House and Senate Democrats voted to give these cops a huge pay raise,” said said on Twitter in a post showing police firing tear gas. “Some even called it historic. Remember that every time the cops gas peaceful protesters.” State police said in a statement that what “began as a peaceful protest evolved into anarchical and criminal actions by masses of splinter group.” And they said they had issued multiple warnings for people to leave. Police said gas was deployed “after protesters attempted to break the glass" and was later deployed again in a plaza across the street. Police said some memorials at the plaza were defaced. No broken glass was visible at the Senate building after the crowd dispersed. Salman said in an interview Saturday that police in Arizona have a long history of using unneeded force against people exercising the First Amendment rights to protest and then blaming them for causing the trouble. She pointed to Black Lives Matter and immigrant justice protests, and said she's not surprised to see it at an abortion rights protest. “Anything related to human rights they're ultimately going to gas the crowd and then come up with cover stories justifying this excessive use of force,” Salman said. State Senate Democrats issued a statement Saturday saying the vast majority of protesters were peaceful while noting that a small number tried to enter the building. “We unequivocally condemn violence in all forms, and anxiously await the investigation results to explain the response of law enforcement,” the statement said. They also criticized “right-wing media and lawmakers” who called it an “insurrection attempt,” and said they were “weaponizing this moment to deflect from the actions of January 6th.” READ: Palestinian march in Paris defies ban, is met by tear gas Republicans lawmakers had enacted a 15-week abortion ban in March over the objection of minority Democrats. It mirrors a Mississippi law that the Supreme Court upheld on Friday while also striking down Roe. A law dating from before Arizona became a state in 1912 that bans all abortions remains on the books, and providers across the state stopped providing abortions earlier Friday out of fear of prosecution. The protester incident forced Senate lawmakers to flee to the basement for about 20 minutes, said Democratic Sen. Martin Quezada. Stinging tear gas wafted through the building afterward, and the proceedings were moved to a hearing room instead of the Senate chamber. Fann was presiding over a vote for a contentious school vouchers expansion bill when she abruptly halted proceedings. Speeches backing or supporting the bill expanding the state's school voucher program to all 1.1 million public school students were cut off, and the bill passed. “We're going into recess right now, OK?” Fann announced. “We have a security problem outside.” The building was never breached, said Kim Quintero, a spokesperson for the Senate GOP leadership. After the tear gas sent protesters fleeing, the Senate reconvened to vote on its final bills before adjourning for the year shortly after midnight. A faint smell of tear gas hung in the air.

South Korea has decided to restrict the export of military goods including tear gas to Myanmar, suspend bilateral defense exchanges and reconsider development assistance to the Southeast Asian nation amid its violent crackdown on citizens protesting a coup, the government said Friday.

Security forces in Myanmar again used force Saturday to disperse anti-coup protesters, a day after a U.N. special envoy urged the Security Council to take action to quell junta violence that this past week left more than 50 peaceful demonstrators dead and scores injured.

Police in Myanmar’s biggest city fired tear gas Monday at defiant crowds who returned to the streets to protest last month’s coup, despite reports that security forces had killed at least 18 people a day earlier.

A group of migrants on Saturday tried to bring down a fence in a desperate attempt to bust through the border into Greece while others hurled rocks at Greek police. Greek authorities responded, firing volleys of tear gas at the youths.

Hong Kong police fired tear gas at a public park Sunday that was overflowing with thousands of protesters calling for electoral reforms and a boycott of the Chinese Communist Party.