DHAKA (Reuters/AP) – Bangladesh announced it will indefinitely shut down all public and private universities from Wednesday after protests by students against a quota system for government jobs turned deadly this week, leaving at least six people dead and scores injured.
The South Asian nation has been rocked by protests for weeks over public sector job quotas, which include a 30% reservation for family members of freedom fighters from the 1971 War of Independence from Pakistan. It has sparked anger among students who face high youth unemployment rates, with nearly 32 million young Bangladeshis not in work or education out of a total population of 170 million people.
Demonstrations intensified after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina refused to meet the protesters' demands, citing ongoing court proceedings, and labelled those opposing the quota as "razakar" – a term used for those who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 war.
The protests turned violent this week when thousands of anti-quota protesters clashed with members of the student wing of the ruling Awami League party across the country. Police used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters.
According to AP, student protesters clashed with pro-government student activists and with police, and violence was reported around the capital of Dhaka, the southeastern city of Chattogram and the northern city of Rangpur. At least three of the dead were students, one was a pedestrian and one was not identified, media reports said, citing officials.
Protesters are demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up to 30% of government jobs.
They argue the quota is discriminatory, and should be replaced with a merit-based system. They also say it benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement. Ruling party leaders accuse the opposition of backing the protests.
Clashes broke out on Monday at the country’s leading Dhaka University, with more than 100 students injured, police said. Violence spread overnight to Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, and was reported elsewhere around the country on Tuesday.
Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including the pedestrian, in Chattogram. Media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in Rangpur. Details of the deaths could not be confirmed immediately.
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh’s private sector, many people prefer government jobs because they are seen as stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
Hasina defended the quota system on Tuesday, saying that the veterans — commonly known as “freedom fighters” — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political affiliation.
“Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had,” she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
At Jahangir Nagar University early on Tuesday, violence broke out when protesters gathered at the vice chancellor’s residence. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of the Awami League, of attacking their protests. Local media reports said police and ruling party-backed students attacked the protesters.
But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country’s leading English-language newspaper, Daily Star, that protesters attacked police and that officers retaliated with tear gas and blank rounds. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.
More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, hospital medical officer Ali Bin Solaiman said. He said at least 30 of the victims suffered pellet wounds.
Protesters also blocked highways and railways in Dhaka and elsewhere across the country.
Swapon, a Dhaka University student protester who gave only his first name, said students want a “rational” reform of the quota program. He said that if he can’t find a job after studying for six years, “it will cause me and my family to suffer.”
Protesters have said they are apolitical, but ruling parties have accused opposition parties of backing the demonstrations for political gain.
OPPOSITION BNP ACTIVIST ARRESTED
Police raided the headquarters of the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in Dhaka around midnight on Tuesday and arrested seven activists, including a former leader of its student wing.
Harun ur Rashid, the head of police's detective branch, said they recovered 100 crude bombs and several bottles of petrol during the raid that was conducted after a bus was set on fire near the BNP office.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the senior joint secretary of BNP, condemned the raid and said the government planted the recovered items to discredit the anti-quota protests. The protests are the first significant challenge to Hasina's government since she secured a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by the BNP.
Experts attribute the unrest to stagnant job growth in the private sector, making government jobs, which offer regular wage hikes and other privileges, increasingly desirable.
A ruling party-backed student activist at Dhaka University, who declined to give his name, told The Associated Press that protesters and militant supporters of the opposition’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party had vandalized rooms in student dormitories.
The quota system had temporarily been halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that decision, reinstating the quota system once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.
Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court’s order for four weeks, and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks. However, the protests have continued daily.
The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have only protested against jobs reserved for veterans’ families.
Currently, 56% of government jobs in Bangladesh are reserved under various quotas, including 10% for women, 10% for people from underdeveloped districts, 5% for indigenous communities, and 1% for people with disabilities.
Prime Minister Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was boycotted by opposition parties due to Hasina’s refusal to step down and allow a caretaker government to oversee the election.
Her Awami League party, under her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with many family members in a military coup in 1975.
In 1971, the Jamaat-e-Islami party — which shared power with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Hasina’s archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, in 2001-2006 — openly opposed the independence war. It formed groups that helped the Pakistani military fight pro-independence forces.