At least 400 injured as students and anti-quota demonstrators clash over coveted government jobs, government persons are trying to divert the issue; expert says
Police fired tear gas and charged with batons during violent clashes between a pro-government student body and student protesters overnight, leaving dozens injured at a public university outside Bangladesh’s capital, police and students said Tuesday.
The violence spread early Tuesday at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, where the protesters were demanding an end to a government job quota for family members of heroes who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups. The system was suspended in 2018, which brought similar protests to a halt at the time. But in a decision last month, Bangladesh’s High Court asked for the 30% quota for veterans’ descendants to be restored.
That triggered fresh protests, with demonstrators supporting the 6% quota for disabled people and ethnic groups but not for the descendants of the independence war heroes.
The Supreme Court last week halted the High Court’s order for four weeks and the chief justice asked the protesters to return to their classes. The Supreme Court said it would decide on the issue after four weeks, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the issue is in the hands of the Supreme Court now.
Although more than 400 students were injured across Bangladesh on Monday in clashes between those protesting to end a quota system for government jobs and others loyal to the ruling party, police and witnesses said.
The protests mark the first significant demonstrations that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced since she won a fourth straight term in an election in January boycotted by the main opposition.
Thousands of anti-quota protesters and members of the student wing of Hasina’s Awami League hurled rocks and fought each other with sticks and iron rods at universities across the country, including Dhaka, police and witnesses said.
Students were injured on several campuses, police officials said.
The protesters called for marches and rallies to continue across the country to press their demands.
“This is more than just a student movement. To suppress this movement, incitement from the highest levels of government has been made. So, common people have to come to the streets,” said Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the anti-quota protests.
The protests began earlier this month after the High Court ordered the government to restore 30% job quotas for the descendants of freedom fighters. They have continued despite Bangladesh’s top court suspending that order for a month last week.
The protests intensified on Sunday night after Hasina refused to meet the students’ demands, stating that the issue was now before the court.
Hasina said those who oppose job quotas for relatives of freedom fighters are the ‘Razakar’, which collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 War of Independence. Her comments led thousands of students to leave their dormitories on the Dhaka University campus at midnight to protest.
