Violence Erupts Over Bangladeshi Student Protests on Job Quota Reforms

At least 18 people have been killed in Bangladesh as student protests over the quota system for government jobs intensify. Demonstrators are demanding reforms to the system, which reserves a significant percentage of jobs for relatives of war heroes. Authorities have shut down metro and railway services, and mobile internet networks to curb the protests.

At least 11 more people were killed in Bangladesh on Thursday as violence escalated in the capital Dhaka and elsewhere over student protests demanding reforms of the quota system for government jobs, taking the toll to 18 since the protests erupted.

University students in Dhaka and other cities have been holding rallies for days against the system of reserving some public sector jobs for the relatives of war heroes, who fought for the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971.

"In total, there are reports of 11 deaths. While nine of these deaths are reported from Dhaka, one is in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital, and one in south-western Madaripur district," the mass-circulation Prothom Alo newspaper reported.

Concurring with the number of deaths, the private Somoy Television channel said police continued to use rubber bullets, tear gas and sound grenades to disperse the protesters.

Earlier, six people, most of them students, were killed on Tuesday while another death was reported overnight, taking the total death toll to 18 since the protest started more than a week ago.

However, police have not yet issued a statement on the casualties.

The escalated violence prompted authorities to shut the metro rail inside the capital alongside the railway services to and from Dhaka since Thursday afternoon.

The government ordered the shutdown of mobile internet networks to quell the demonstrators. Authorities deployed Border Guard Bangladesh personnel across the country including the capital, to maintain law and order, the official BSS news agency reported.

Witnesses said the protesters laid a siege on the state-run Bangladesh Television Bhaban in the Rampura area in Dhaka and damaged its front side, torched several parked vehicles while some 1,200 staff, including journalists, were stranded inside.

Government offices and banks were open as paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), riot police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) patrolled streets in Dhaka and other major cities but the attendance appeared thin because of limited public transport.

The protesters overnight vowed to enforce a "complete shutdown" nationwide after days of their demonstrations and violent clashes and ruling Awami League-backed student activists that left at least seven people dead on Tuesday.

Law minister Anisul Huq, meanwhile, told a media briefing on Thursday that the government decided to sit in a dialogue with protesting students.

The law minister said, as promised by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, a judicial investigation committee was formed on Thursday with High Court judge Khondkar Diliruzzaman as its head to enquire into the killing in violence.

But Students Against Discrimination, the main group behind this month's rallies, said the premier's words were insincere and "it did not reflect the murders and mayhem carried out by her party activists." Fifty-six per cent of government jobs are reserved under the current quota system. Every year some 3,000 government jobs open up to nearly 4,00,000 graduates.

The protestors are waging a campaign for the reform of the system saying it debars meritorious students' recruitment in first-class and second-class government jobs and now are demanding a direct gazette notification to this effect.

(With inputs from agencies.)