bangladesh violence
Police in Bangladesh used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse students protesting the government’s job quota system, a day after violent confrontations killed six people and injured hundreds.
Authorities also declared the indefinite shutdown of all public and private universities beginning Wednesday in response to protests against public sector job quotas, which include a 30% reservation for family members of warriors during Pakistan’s 1971 War of Independence.
Authorities deployed paramilitary Border Guard units with riot police outside the Dhaka University campus as students screamed, “We will not let our brothers’ blood go in vain”.
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets, as well as sound grenades, at students marching in processions carrying coffins in solidarity with those killed, according to Nahid Islam, the anti-quota protests’ coordinator.
The quotas have sparked outrage among students, who confront high youth unemployment rates, with approximately 32 million young Bangladeshis out of a total population of 170 million.
Demonstrations escalated as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who spearheaded Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, failed to meet the demonstrators’ demands.
The protests became violent this week when thousands of anti-quota demonstrators clashed with members of the ruling Awami League party’s student branch across the country. Police reported six people were killed in conflicts on Tuesday, including at least three students.
The rallies are the first substantial threat to Hasina’s rule since she won a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
