More than 100 students were injured on Monday in Bangladesh during clashes between protesters wanting to end a quota system for government jobs and supporters of the ruling party, according to police and witnesses.
These protests are the first major demonstrations faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since she won her fourth consecutive term in an election in January.
Thousands of anti-quota protesters and members of the student wing of Hasina’s Awami League clashed at universities across the country, including in Dhaka. They threw rocks and fought with sticks and iron rods, police and witnesses reported. Students were injured on multiple campuses, police said.
The protesters are calling for ongoing marches and rallies to press their demands. Nahid Islam, who leads the anti-quota protests, said, “This movement goes beyond student concerns. The highest levels of government have incited actions to suppress it. So, common people have to come to the streets.”
The protests began earlier this month after the High Court ordered the government to restore 30% job quotas for the descendants of freedom fighters. Despite the top court suspending that order for a month last week, the protests have continued.
The protests escalated on Sunday night after Hasina declined to meet the students’ demands, indicating that the matter was now under court consideration. Hasina said those opposing job quotas for relatives of freedom fighters are the ‘Razakar’, who collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 War of Independence. Her comments led thousands of students to leave their dormitories at Dhaka University at midnight to protest.
Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud commented, “An attempt is being made to transform the anti-quota movement into an anti-state one using the emotions of young students. The government will not allow an unstable situation to develop.”
