Students set wood on fire as they protest against quotas in government jobs at Dhaka University in the capital on July 17, 2024. Bangladeshi students on July 17, mourned classmates killed in protests over civil service hiring rules, a day after the government ordered the indefinite closure of schools nationwide to restore order.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Bangladesh students vowed on July 18 to continue nationwide protests against civil service hiring rules, rebuffing an olive branch from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who pledged justice for seven killed in the demonstrations.

Ms. Hasina’s government has ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely and stepped up efforts to contain weeks of rallies demanding equal access to public sector jobs.

Riot police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds while protesters and students allied to the premier’s ruling Awami League have battled on the streets with bricks and bamboo rods.

Ms. Hasina condemned the “murder” of protesters in a televised address to the nation and vowed that those responsible will be punished regardless of their political affiliation.

But Students Against Discrimination, the main group behind this month’s rallies, said her words were insincere and urged supporters to press on.

“It did not reflect the murders and mayhem carried out by her party activists,” Asif Mahmud, one of the coordinators of the protests, told AFP.

The group called on Bangladeshis to observe a nationwide shutdown on July 18, by keeping shops closed and staying at home ahead of fresh protests planned for later in the day.

The call was widely observed in the capital Dhaka, with barely any vehicles seen on the city’s usually traffic-choked roads.

Dhaka residents reported widespread mobile internet outages on July 18, two days after internet providers cut off access to Facebook — the protest campaign’s key organising tool.

Police on July 18 announced the death of a seventh protester the previous evening, conceding that police weaponry had killed the 18-year-old.

“He was hit by rubber bullets,” police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP. “He was brought to the hospital but died before he was admitted.”

Hundreds injured

More than 500 others were injured in clashes around the country on July 17, while six people were killed on July 16.

Ms. Hasina’s speech did not assign responsibility for the deaths, but descriptions from hospital authorities and students given to AFP earlier suggest at least some of the victims died when police used supposedly non-lethal weapons on demonstrations.

Rights group Amnesty International said video evidence from clashes this week showed that Bangladeshi security forces had used unlawful force.

Fresh clashes overnight included a battle on Dhaka’s outskirts between police and more than 1,000 protesters who set fire to a roadside toll booth.

“We spent the whole night fending off attacks from the protesters,” deputy police commissioner Iqbal Hossain told AFP, adding that officers had eventually dispersed the group with rubber bullets and tear gas.

At the heart of the protests are demands to end of a quota system for lucrative government jobs that opponents say unfairly benefits members of Bangladesh’s ruling party.

People run as police fire teargas during a coffin rally of anti-quota protesters at the University of Dhaka, a day after the clash with Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League, and anti-quota protesters, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 17, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Authorities in Bangladesh urged all universities to close on July 17, a day after at least six people died in violent protests over the allocation of government jobs and police raided the headquarters of the main opposition party.

Dhaka University, at the centre of the violence, decided to suspend classes and close its dormitories indefinitely, a university official told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to media.

The University Grants Commission asked all public and private universities to close until further notice in order to protect students, but the request did not have legal force and it was not immediately clear how many universities would comply.

Student protesters clash with pro-government student activists, police

Authorities said that at least six people were killed on July 16 in violence across the country as student protesters clashed with pro-government student activists and the police, and violence was reported around Dhaka, the southeastern city of Chattogram and the northern city of Rangpur.

Overnight, Dhaka police raided the headquarters of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, accusing it of playing a role in the violence.

Detective chief Harun-or-Rashid told reporters that police had arrested seven members of the party’s student wing in connection with two buses that were set on fire on July 16. He added that detectives found 100 crude bombs, 500 wooden and bamboo sticks, and five to six bottles of petrol in the raid.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior BNP leader, accused the government of “staging” the raid to divert attention from protests.

On Wednesday, police clashed with BNP supporters in Dhaka’s Paltan area after a funeral ritual for the six people who died on Tuesday.

Police official Sentu Mia said they used rubber bullets to disperse the opposition activists after they attacked police, and several people were arrested. BNP secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused police of barring their supporters from the funeral prayers.

On July 17, stray protests took place at Dhaka University and elsewhere in the country. Police were deployed on the campus, while paramilitary border forces patrolled the streets in Dhaka and other big cities.

A senior leader of the ruling Awami League party said the opposition was using the protests as a weapon against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Obaidul Quader, the Awami League’s general secretary and a senior Cabinet minister, said that “evil forces” have taken over the student movement, blaming the student wings of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and right wing Jamaat-e-Islami party for Tuesday’s violence.

He urged the protesters to have patience until the country’s Supreme Court hears petitions involving the quota issues next month.

The controversial reservation policy

The protests began late last month, demanding an end to a quota that reserves 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence in 1971, but turned violent on Monday as protesters at Dhaka University clashed with police and counter-protests organized by the student wing of the governing Awami League party, leaving 100 people injured.

Violence spread overnight to Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, and was reported elsewhere around the country on Tuesday.

Protesters argue the veterans’ families quota is discriminatory, and argue 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. Protesters have said they are apolitical.

The quota system also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and membesr of ethnic minorities, but protesters have only sought to end the quota for families of veterans.

While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh’s private sector, many people prefer government jobs because they are seen as stable and high-paying. Each year, nearly 4,00,000 graduates compete for 3,000 such jobs in the civil service exam.

The quota system was temporarily halted in 2018, following a court order that followed an earlier wave of mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that decision, angering students and triggering renewed protests.

Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court’s order for four weeks, as the Chief Justice asked students to return to classes. But the protests continued.

Ms. Hasina defended the quota system on July 16, saying that veterans deserve 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.

Ms. Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was boycotted by Opposition parties and saw opposition members jailed ahead of the polls.

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.