Demonstrators demand finish to scheme that prioritises households of veterans of 1971 independence conflict.
A college pupil has been killed in Bangladesh, police stated, as protests in opposition to a quota system for presidency jobs intensified.
On Tuesday, hundreds of riot police had been patrolling college campuses throughout the nation in an effort to avert any violence. Police stated they used tear fuel and rubber bullets in Rangpur, in northwestern Bangladesh, to interrupt up the demonstrations.
“We had to make use of rubber bullets and tear fuel to disperse the unruly college students who had been hurling stones at us,” stated Rangpur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mohammad Moniruzzaman stated.
“We heard a protesting pupil died after he was taken to hospital. It was not instantly clear how he died,” he added.
At Jahangir Nagar College in Savar, close to the capital, Dhaka, college students demanded an finish to the quota reserved for relations of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 conflict of independence, which permits them to take up 30 p.c of presidency jobs.
Protesters gathered in entrance of the college’s official residence of the vice chancellor and accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a pupil wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s governing Awami League occasion, of attacking their “peaceable protests”.
In keeping with native media experiences, police and the governing party-backed pupil wing attacked the protesters.
Tens of hundreds of scholars took half within the nationwide protests after greater than 100 individuals had been injured on Monday. There have been additionally clashes between protesters and college students loyal to the Awami League in some areas, together with in Dhaka, as college students blocked main highways and rail hyperlinks.
In Bangladesh, 56 p.c of presidency jobs are reserved for varied quotas. Girls have 10 p.c reservation, 10 p.c is for individuals from underdeveloped districts, 5 p.c for Indigenous communities and 1 p.c for individuals with disabilities.
Whereas job alternatives have elevated within the nation’s non-public sector, many discover authorities jobs secure and profitable. Practically 400,000 graduates have about 3,000 job alternatives out there yearly.
Nevertheless, the protesters argue that the appointment quotas are discriminatory and ought to be merit-based. Some even stated the present system advantages teams supporting Hasina.
Hasina stated on Tuesday that conflict veterans ought to obtain the very best respect for his or her sacrifice in 1971 no matter their present political ideologies.
“Abandoning the dream of their very own life, abandoning their households, mother and father and all the things, they joined the conflict with no matter that they had,” she stated throughout an occasion at her workplace in Dhaka.
The prime minister additionally referred to these opposing the quota as “razakar”, a time period used for individuals who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani military through the 1971 conflict.
The quota was stopped following a court docket order after mass pupil protests in 2018. However final month, the Excessive Courtroom nulled the choice to reinstall the system, angering college students and triggering new demonstrations.
Final week, the Supreme Courtroom halted the Excessive Courtroom’s order for 4 weeks. The chief justice requested protesting college students to return to lessons, saying the court docket would difficulty a choice in 4 weeks.
