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Following a deadly protest in Bangladesh over discriminatory job quotas which has claimed six lives, schools, univerisities and institutions have been ordered to be shut indefinitely.
University students have been holding rallies for several days against the system of providing reservations in public sector jobs for the children of war heroes, who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The students argue that the job system is discriminatory, and they want recruitment based on merit.
Several cities, including the capital Dhaka, this week witnessed clashes between supporters of the anti-quota movement and those who are against it, particularly the student wing of the governing Awami League known as the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).
Student groups attacked each other with bricks and sticks. Police fired teargas and used rubber bullets to disperse the clashing groups.
Student activists said hundreds of people had been injured in the attacks.
“We blame the BCL members for the violence. They killed the protesters. Police didn’t intervene to save the ordinary students,” Abdullah Salehin Ayoun, one of the co-ordinators of the anti-quota movement, said
Government jobs are highly coveted in Bangladesh because they pay well. In total, more than half of the positions, amounting to hundreds of thousands, are reserved for certain groups.
Critics say the system unfairly benefits the children of pro-government groups that support Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who won her fourth straight election in January.
Officials say three people were killed in the southern port city of Chittagong and two in Dhaka, while one student was killed in the northern city of Rangpur by a stray bullet.
Media reports say at least three of those killed were students, though there is no official confirmation yet.
The government blames opposition groups for the violence.
“The student fronts of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] have infiltrated this anti-quota movement. They are the ones who initiated the violence,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told the BBC.
Bangladesh’s top court suspended the current system last week, but protests are expected to continue until it is permanently removed.
“The case has been listed for hearing on 7 August. Students have been given an opportunity to present their argument in the court,” Mr Huq said.
The protests have been going on for days with the students blocking roads and highways in Dhaka and other major cities, bringing traffic to a halt.
Student leaders said they were angered by recent comments of Ms Hasina whom, they said, described those opposed to the job quotas as razakar – a term used for those who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 war.
“They want to suppress our voices through creating a reign of terror in the country. If I don’t protest today, they will beat me another day. That’s why I am on the streets to protest,” Rupaiya Sherstha, a female student at Dhaka University, said
Mohammad Ali Arafat, state minister for information and broadcasting, denied allegations that the student wing of the Awami League triggered the violence.
UN Secretary General António Guterres called on the government to “protect the demonstrators against any form of threat or violence”, according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
The students have vowed to continue their protests until their demands are met.
