Political turmoil in Bangladesh

For those of our friends and family who have been worried about the political situation in Bangladesh over the past week, I just wanted to let you know what's been going on. Last Wednesday, students at Dhaka University got into a clash with Military personnel which then spread into country-wide clashes between students and police and military. The whole thing started over a very small incident--some students were blocking the view of a few military personnel at a football game, and the military personnel yelled at them and told them to get out of the way. And this led to a scuffle, and then erupted in violence. (The photo above is of a restaurant that students set on fire in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.) Basically, students at Dhaka University have been having to live with the military camping out on campus since the state of emergency was declared in January. So the military has taken over the students' gym, which means they have no place for sports activities. Plus, of course, they are not happy with the constant military presence on campus. So this situation was basically a time-bomb waiting to go off. And once students at other universities heard what was happening, they staged protests. So anyway, last Wednesday the government set in place an indefinite country-wide curfew. It was then lifted on Friday for the daytime, which was lucky for us, because Salma and I were visiting Rajshahi and needed to get back to Dhaka! Anyway, the night curfew continued for several more days and now it's been lifted. So the situation is better now. But the government made some rather alarming moves--for several days, they shut off all mobile phone networks and internet connections. Also, several teachers at Dhaka University and other schools were arrested, and are still being held in undisclosed locations. This is rather alarming as well. But our university was not a part of all of this--it just so happened that our summer vacation started on Monday, and the clashes broke out on Wednesday. Anyway, we're doing fine, and the situation seems to be better now. If you want to read more about what happened, check out the link to this article from The New Age, one of the Bangladesh newspapers: http://www.newagebd.com/2007/aug/23/front.html#1