ISLAMABAD: Thirteen people were killed on Thursday as violent clashes broke out between thousands of student protesters and armed police in Dhaka, the bloodiest day yet in Bangladesh’s demonstrations against the government’s policy of job quotas.
The officials said that three students, a rickshaw-puller, and a bus driver who was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to the chest were among the dead. At least 19 people have now been killed in the country since the unrest broke out earlier this week, according to The Hindu.
The protesters, who were armed with sticks and stones, fought with the police forces, who used rubber bullets and tear gas. Witnesses said there was a scene of chaos as demonstrators burned vehicles, police outposts, and government buildings in the capital. The violence left hundreds of people injured.
To curb the unrest, the government temporarily blocked some mobile internet services. The protests, which have swept the nation, are the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected earlier this year. The protest movement is led by youths as youth unemployment is soaring to almost 20 percent of the 170 million people in the country.
The core of the protests is the opposition to a policy that gives 30 percent of government jobs to descendants of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. The government did away with the quota system in 2018, but a High Court ruling last month reinstated the quota system. The government has appealed, and the Supreme Court has stayed the verdict until a hearing on 7 August.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed to all sides to exercise restraint and demanded a full investigation of the violence. The Secretary-General welcomes the active and positive youth engagement in helping to solve the existing problems in Bangladesh. Violence is never the solution,” said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric
The majority of the deaths on Thursday were in Dhaka, where the violence was especially intense around the main university campus. Nevertheless, protests also escalated in other parts of the capital.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said that the government was ready to talk to the leaders of the protests. However, the demonstrators flatly rejected the offer. Talks and bullets do not mix, said the protest organizer, Nahid Islam. We cannot step over bodies to make deals. The talks should have been made earlier.”
Prime Minister Hasina, the daughter of the founding leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has so far declined to bow to the demands of the protesters to abolish the quota, saying that the matter is in the hands of the courts.
All the public and private universities were closed indefinitely on Wednesday in response to the escalating crisis. Security forces have since been deployed on campuses to avert further unrest.
