Bangladesh: Scholars protest over government jobs reserved for children of war heroes

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — At least five people were killed and dozens injured in two sovereign incidents in Bangladesh as violence broke out on university campuses in the national capital and elsewhere on Tuesday over a central government job quota scheme, local media said. The reports quoted officials as saying.

Media reports said at least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian. Some other persons who died in Dhaka remain unidentified.

The deaths were reported on Tuesday after a day of violence at a population college in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. Members of a pro-government student group and other students were involved in the violence as police fired tear gas and baton-charged protesters during clashes at Jahangir Nagar College in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and the government. ,

It was not easy for the protesters to end the quota reserved for nation participants, veterans who fought in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence, which allows them to take up 30% of government jobs.

They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some people also mentioned supporting Tide Machine benefit teams Top Minister Sheikh Hasina, Some cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying that they demonstrated in line with the sentiments of the scholars.

Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily reported that one person was killed in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were injured during violence in the southeastern district of Chattogram on Tuesday.

Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester was killed in the northern district of Rangpur.

Details of casualties could not be immediately released.

There is an expansion of pace job opportunities in the non-public sector of Bangladesh, many of which are solid and profitable in finding government jobs. Each year, approximately 3,000 such jobs are created, which equates to approximately 400,000 graduates.

Hasina on Tuesday said war veterans – repeatedly referred to as “freedom fighters” – should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971, regardless of their political ideologies.

“Abandoning the dream of their life, leaving their family, parents and everything, they joined the war with everything they had,” he said during a tournament at his workplace in Dhaka.

As violence broke out, protesters gathered in front of the residence of the university vice-chancellor in the early hours of Tuesday. The protesters accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a scholarly wing of Hasina’s ruling Awami League party, of attacking their “peaceful protests”. According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.

However, Abdullahiil Kafi, a senior police officer, told the country’s leading English-language newspaper Daily Superstar that protesters fired tear gas and “blank bullets” when they attacked police. He said 15 police officers were injured.

More than 50 people were treated at the Jehangir Nagar College-like Annam Clinical College Sanatorium as the violence continued for hours, said Ali bin Solaiman, a scientific officer at the clinic. He said at least 30 of them were shot.

On Monday, violence also spread to Dhaka College, the country’s leading populous school, as clashes broke out on its campus in the capital. Police said more than 100 students were injured in the clashes.

On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in several areas as they vowed to continue demonstrations until their demands are met.

Local media reported that police forces had been deployed around the capital to clear the area.

Swapan, a protester and Dhaka University student who gave his first name only, said they just wanted “rational reform of the quota scheme”. He said that after studying for 6 years, if he did not get a job, “it would cause trouble for me and my family.”

The protesters say they are apolitical, but ruling party leaders accuse the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gain.

A ruling party-backed student activist, who declined to give his name, told The Associated Press that protesters broke into their rooms in student dormitories with the support of “goons” from the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Birthday Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Vandalized. Similar to Curzon Corridor of Dhaka College.

The veterans’ quota plan was halted in the country following a court order in 2018 following protests by cumulative students. However, recently, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh canceled the decision to reinstate the scheme, which angered the students and led to protests.

Ending the term, the Supreme Court suspended the apex court proceedings for four weeks and the Chief Justice asked the protesting students to return to their classes, announcing that the court would take a decision in four weeks.

On the other hand, protests continue day by day, causing tourists to stay in Dhaka.

The quota plan also reserves government jobs for women, people with disabilities and ethnic minority groups, but students have most protested against jobs reserved for veterans’ families.

Prime Minister Hasina retained power in an election in January that was once again boycotted by the country’s main opposition party and its allies, after Hasina refused to step down and appoint a caretaker government to oversee the election. Handed over power.

His party favors maintaining quotas for families of 1971 war heroes, after his Awami League party, led by his father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the autonomy war with India’s support. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his countrymen in a military coup in 1975.

In 1971, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which shared power in 2001–2006 with Hasina’s rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, openly opposed the independence war and formed teams that supported Pakistani Helped the army in fighting. -Freedom Force. There are vibrant scholarly wings around South Asians in all primary political events in Bangladesh.

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Associated Press video journalist AL Emrun Garzon contributed to the file.