Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is facing widespread criticism after she was photographed crying over the damage to a metro rail station in Dhaka amid ongoing anti-government protests in the country.

The protests, which have resulted in the deaths of at least 150 people, began around two weeks ago over the government’s quotas for public sector jobs. Protesters, mostly university students, had been calling for these quotas to be scrapped.

During her visit to the damaged metro station in Mirpur on Thursday, Hasina was seen frowning and wiping away tears with a tissue paper. The prime minister condemned the destruction, saying, “What kind of mentality leads them to destroy facilities that make people’s lives easier?”

However, Hasina’s emotional display has drawn significant backlash on social media, with many accusing her of shedding “crocodile tears” for the damaged infrastructure while failing to express the same level of sympathy for the protesters who have been killed.

“We lost [hundreds of] students. But PM Sheikh Hasina had the time to go ‘cry’ for a metro rail, not for the people who won’t return ever again,” said one Twitter user.

Journalist Zulkarnian Saer also criticized the prime minister, noting that she “had the time to visit the vandalised train station, but she did not visit [the families] of the students… shot dead [during protests].”

The protests have posed an unprecedented challenge to Hasina’s authoritarian rule, which has been criticized for over-politicizing Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The government has been accused of using excessive force to quell the unrest, and has blamed political opponents for the violence.

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Despite the court’s decision to roll back most of the controversial job quotas, student leaders have vowed to continue protesting and have called for the resignation of government ministers and an apology from Hasina.

As the situation remains tense, the prime minister’s emotional display at the damaged train station has only served to further inflame public sentiment against her government’s handling of the crisis.