POLICE clashed with student protesters attempting to impose a “complete shutdown” of Bangladesh’s capital today, following days of violent confrontations over a system of allocating government jobs.
Local media reports say 10 people have died across the country.
Students have been demonstrating for weeks against a quota system for government jobs they say favours allies of the ruling party.
But the situation has escalated since violence broke out between protesters, police and pro-government student activists on the campus of Dhaka University on Monday.
Six people were killed on Tuesday, leading the government to ask universities across the country to close and police to raid the main opposition party’s headquarters.
As clashes continued on Thursday, Bangladesh’s Law Minister Anisul Huq said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had asked him to open dialogue, and he was ready to speak with protesters that same night if they were willing.
On Wednesday night, the protesters announced they would enforce “a complete shutdown” across the country today in response to security officials’ continued attacks on the campus demonstrators.
Clashes continued as protesters attempted to enforce the shutdown on Thursday morning.
In Dhaka’s Uttara neighbourhood, hundreds of protesters were chased by police after they blocked the road and chanted. In other places, police fired tear gas and charged with truncheons to disperse the students, who threw stones in response.
Protesters are demanding an end to a quota system that reserves up to 30 per cent of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
They argue that the system is discriminatory and benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement.
Ms Hasina’s government halted the quotas after mass student protests in 2018. But Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that decision and reinstated the quotas last month after relatives of the 1971 veterans filed petitions, triggering the latest demonstrations.
The Supreme Court then suspended the High Court’s ruling. The government has also appealed the High Court decision in the wake of the protest, according to the attorney general’s office.
Bangladesh’s ruling party blamed opposition group BNP for the chaos and Dhaka police raided the party’s headquarters on Tuesday.
Detective Chief Harun-or-Rashid said police arrested seven members of its student wing, claiming detectives had found 100 crude bombs, 500 wooden and bamboo sticks, as well as five to six bottles of petrol in the raid.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior BNP leader, said the raid was a government attempt to divert attention from the protests.
