Student protests in Bangladesh turn violent, resulting in numerous injuries and at least five fatalities.
According to media accounts, student protests over a government jobs quota resulted in violence across Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring scores more.
Violence was reported in the areas surrounding the capital city of Dhaka, the southeast city of Chattogram, and the northern city of Rangpur when student demonstrators clashed with police and pro-government student groups. According to media accounts citing officials, at least three of the deceased were students, one was a pedestrian, and one was unidentified.
Family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 independence struggle are eligible to apply for up to 30% of government posts, but protestors are calling for an end to this quota.
They contend that a merit-based system ought to take the place of the quota since it is discriminatory. Additionally, they claim that it helps followers of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who led the independence movement with her Awami League party. The opposition is accused by ruling party leaders of supporting the protests.
Over a hundred students were hurt in fighting that broke out on Monday at Dhaka University, the top university in the nation, according to authorities. Overnight, violence reached Savar’s Jahangir Nagar University, which is outside of Dhaka. On Tuesday, reports of violence were received from other parts of the nation.
Bengali language According Bangladesh Prothom Alo daily, three people—including the pedestrian—died in Chattogram and one person died in Dhaka. According to media sources, a protester in Rangpur who was 22 years old passed away. It was not possible to confirm the deaths’ specifics right away.
Even though the private sector in Bangladesh now offers more employment options, many people still choose government positions because they are thought to be reliable and well-paying. Every year, almost 400,000 graduates can apply for about 3,000 of these positions.
Regardless of their present political membership, Hasina defended the quota system on Tuesday, stating that the veterans, also known as “freedom fighters,” deserve the utmost appreciation for their sacrifice made in 1971.
“They joined the war with whatever they had, abandoning the dream of their own life and leaving behind their families, parents, and everything,” the speaker stated at a Dhaka event.
Violence erupted at Jahangir Nagar University early on Tuesday as demonstrators gathered at the vice chancellor’s home. The student wing of the Awami League, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, was accused by demonstrators of attacking their demonstrations. According to local media accounts, students backed by the ruling party and police attacked the demonstrators.
Senior police official Abdullahil Kafi, however, said in the Daily Star, the main English-language daily in the nation, that demonstrators had attacked police, and that officers had responded by using tear gas and blank bullets. Up to fifteen police officers were hurt, he claimed.
According to hospital medical officer Ali Bin Solaiman, more than 50 patients received treatment at Enam Medical College Hospital, which is close to Jahangir Nagar University, during the hours-long violence. He claimed that at least thirty of the casualties had pellet wounds.
Along with roads and railroads, protesters also blocked them in Dhaka and other parts of the nation.
Students at Dhaka University, according to protester Swapon, who only revealed his first name, seek a “rational” overhaul of the quota system. After six years of education, he declared that “it will cause me and my family to suffer” if he is unable to find employment.
While protestors claim to be apolitical, opposition parties are allegedly being backed by ruling parties in order to further their own agendas.
A student activist at Dhaka University supported by the ruling party, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Associated Press that student dorm rooms had been trashed by protestors and militant members of the opposition’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party.
Following widespread student demonstrations in 2018, a court judgment temporarily suspended the quota system. However, the ruling was overturned by Bangladesh’s High Court last month, bringing back the quota system and inciting protests from a large number of students.
The Chief Justice asked the protesting students to return to class last week, stating that the court would make a decision in four weeks. The Supreme Court had suspended the High Court’s order for a period of four weeks. Still, the demonstrations have persisted every day.
Students have only demonstrated against employment designated for the families of veterans, despite the fact that the quota system also reserves government positions for women, the disabled, and members of ethnic minorities.
Because Prime Minister Hasina refused to resign and let a caretaker government conduct the poll, opposition parties boycotted the January election, which resulted in Hasina maintaining her position of authority.
With support from India, her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League party led the fight for independence. In a military takeover in 1975, Rahman and other family members were killed.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Hasina’s fiercest adversary, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, shared power with the Jamaat-e-Islami party from 2001 to 2006, but openly opposed the independence war in 1971. It created organizations to support Pakistani military efforts against forces advocating independence.
