Bangladesh anti-quota protest turns violent
Police forces in Bangladesh have used teargas and rubber bullets against students protesting job quotas.
Hasan Al Mamun, the leader of the anti-quota student group which campaigns against “discriminatory” job quotas, said Sunday that thousands of students gathering in the capital demanding cuts to the quotas were attacked by the police.
“They fired rubber bullets and tear gas at us. They beat us with batons,” said Mamun, whose group has organized nationwide protests against quotas.
He said tens of thousands more students joined similar rallies in state-run universities and colleges in other cities of Bangladesh.
Students in Dhaka University chanted slogans and staged sit-in demonstrations. Live television footage showed police officers using teargas and water canons to disperse students who were throwing rocks at officers. Protest organizers said it was police who started the violence.
A Dhaka police spokesman said police used force to clear the highways linking major cities. He said several people had been arrested but declined to comment on the number of protesters.
The students are angry at a decision by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government set aside some 56 percent of civil service jobs for the families of veterans from the war of independence and disadvantaged minorities. They are specifically critical of the 30 percent quota set aside for the descendants of veterans from the 1971 war of independence.
“These quotas are discriminatory. Due to the quota system, 56 percent of the jobs are set aside for five percent of the country's population. And 95 percent people can compete for the (remaining) 44 percent," Mamun said, adding that protesters were demanding the quotas be reduced to only 10 percent.
Hasina has rejected demands of the students. Her father was the architect of the Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
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