![Supporters and opponents of the Bangladesh quota system for government jobs face off in Dhaka, July 16, 2024. [Source: Md. Hasan/BenarNews]](https://static.globalissues.org/ips/2024/07/GSuNnZaWoAAMQ3H-1536x1025-629x420.jpeg)
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 19 (IPS) – Pupil protests over the Bangladesh authorities’s recruitment system have escalated into violent retaliation from the police and the main social gathering’s pupil wing.
Right this moment (Friday, July 19), violent clashes continued to rock Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, and the northern metropolis of Rangpuras, the place college college students continued their protest over the federal government’s civil service recruitment system. AFP reviews reviews the loss of life toll reached 105.
The quota system, as it’s recognized, now reserves 56 p.c of positions within the civil service to sure teams: 10 p.c to ladies, 10 p.c to these from underdeveloped districts, 5 p.c to indigenous peoples, 1 p.c to individuals with disabilities, and 30 p.c to those that fought within the 1971 conflict of independence, together with their descendants.
In June, Bangladesh’s Excessive Court docket dominated to reinstate the measure to order jobs for indepdendence fighters, which had been beforehand abolished by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2018.
College students and younger staff raised considerations that this technique didn’t reward advantage however slightly favored these affiliated with the Awami League, the ruling social gathering.
Since then, college students have been demanding a reform to the quota system. This comes at a time when the unemployment fee is at 40 p.c for youth who’re neither working nor in college.
On July 14, Hasina implied that the protestors had been “razakars,” a contentious time period in Bangladesh because it refers back to the individuals who supported Pakistan in the course of the 1971 conflict, traitors within the eyes of the Bangladeshi individuals. The feedback from Hasina precipitated outrage amongst college students they usually decried them in the course of the protests.
The escalation into violence started on July 15, when protestors had been attacked by members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the coed wing of the Awami League. Studies emerged of closely armed BCL members attacking indiscriminately in opposition to unarmed protestors, together with ladies and youthful college students.
The federal government consequently known as for all college campuses to close down amid the tensions. The police pressure was despatched in to suppress the motion, the place they’ve used rubber bullets and tear fuel in opposition to college students.
Protests and the ensuing violent clashes have damaged out everywhere in the nation, together with Chittagong, Rangpur, and Dhaka.
On Thursday, the federal government deployed the army, particularly the Fast Motion Battalion (RAB). Since then, at the very least 105 deaths have been reported and over 25,000 individuals have been injured in the course of the protests. This quantity could possibly be a lot greater.
Since July 18, web and cellphone communications have been shut down, first in choose areas and now throughout the nation.
The web shutdown has additionally meant that the web sites of some main information retailers, such because the Each day Star and Bangladesh have gone offline. Simply previous to the shutdown, the BCL’s official web site was hacked with a message that reads “Hacked by THE R3SISTANC3.”
There are additionally reviews that the official web sites of the police and the prime minister’s workplace had been additionally hacked with messages studying, “Cease killing college students” and “It’s not a protest anymore, it’s a conflict now.”
Amid the protests, the federal government introduced on Thursday introduced that it could be prepared to sit down down with protestors to debate their calls for for reform to the quota system.
Legislation minister Anisul Haq mentioned that discussions can be held each time the coed protestors agreed. Pupil protestors have up to now denied this name to motion, with one pupil telling the BBC on Thursday, “The federal government has killed so many individuals in a day that we can’t be a part of any discussions within the present circumstances.”
UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed concern for the violation of human rights and has known as for neutral investigations into the assaults.
“The federal government ought to take the required measures to make sure the safety and security of the scholars taking part in peaceable protests, and to ensure the appropriate to freedom of meeting and expression with out concern of assaults in opposition to their lives and bodily integrity, or different types of repression,” he mentioned. “Bangladesh’s political leaders should work with the nation’s younger inhabitants to seek out options to the continued challenges and give attention to the nation’s development and growth. Dialogue is the perfect and solely approach ahead.”
UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern concerning the violence and known as for “restraint on all sides.”
In a press release issued on Thursday, he known as for authorities to “examine all acts of violence, maintain perpetrators to account, and guarantee a conducive setting for dialogue.”
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