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Picture courtesy: (Rayhan Ahmed / Wikimedia Commons) Bangladesh Students have been on the streets protesting for the past several weeks against the country’s quota system for government jobs.
(The Post News)- On Thursday, Bangladeshi students pledged to continue their nationwide protests against civil service hiring rules, rejecting an olive branch from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who promised justice for those who lost their lives in the demonstrations.
Hasina’s government has instructed schools, including universities, to close indefinitely to assist with the weeks of rallies demanding equal access to public sector jobs.
Demonstrations have erupted in response to the repressive nature of the state.
The protests began last month after the High Court decided to restore a quota system for government jobs, reversing a 2018 decision by Prime Minister Hasina’s government to scrap the movement, which aimed to reserve 30% of jobs for family members of freedom fighters from the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.
Riot police continued to fire tear gas and rubber bullets to control the deadly protest crowds, resulting in the deaths of more than 11 demonstrators reported in three days.
The junior telecommunications minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, said that the government had ordered the mobile internet networks to put an end to demonstrations as they are used as weapons to spread lies, rumours, and misinformation.
Hasina condemned the “killing” of protesters during her televised speech to the nation on Wednesday, promising that those accountable will face punishment regardless of their political affiliation.
However, Students Against Discrimination (SAD), the main group behind this month’s rallies, rejected her words as insincere, aiming for supporters to press on.
Asif Mahmud, one of the coordinators of the protests, said that it did not reflect the killing and mayhem carried out alongside her party activists.
Fresh clashes erupted across various cities in Bangladesh throughout the day as riot police confronted protesters, who initiated another round of human blockades on roads and highways.
Dozens of students were injured when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered at Bangladesh’s top private university in Dhaka.
The elite Rapid Action Battalion police force stated in a statement that at least 60 police officers had been rescued who were trapped on the roof of a campus building at Canadian University because of the scene in the capital’s fiercest encounter on Thursday.
Mubashar Hasan, who’s a Bangladesh expert at the University of Oslo in Norway, said the protests had increased a wider expression of discontent with Hasina’s arrogant rules.
The Sheikh Hasina government stated they are willing to begin the negotiation with the demonstrations, who are asking for reforms in the quota system for government jobs.
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