The police have taken action against students involved in anti-reservation protests in Bangladesh. This is the biggest protest in a decade of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s rule.
At the country’s leading educational institute, Dhaka University, the students were opposing the discriminatory quota for special groups in government jobs. The police fired rubber bullets and tear gas shells on the protesting students. At least 100 people were injured in police action.
After that, thousands of students protested across the country. The clash between the students and the police in Dhaka started on Sunday night and lasted until Monday morning. A political initiative is being taken to overcome the situation, and a minister of Sheikh Hasina’s government is meeting the student leaders on strike at Dhaka University.
Students in government universities in Chittagong, Khulna, Bisal, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet and Savar, have all boycotted their classes. The organisers of the protests in Dhaka say that they were protesting peacefully when the police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. There was also a lathicharge to dissuade the students.
After trying to remove the students gathered at the central square of the university, violence spread throughout the campus, and thousands of students started fighting with the police.
Sheikh Hasina’s government wants to set a quota of 56% in government jobs for certain minority groups and for the families of the freedom fighters in the 1971 war.
Only 44% of the seats will be left for the rest of the people, which will be filled on merit basis. Students are opposing this decision.
Student leader Al Mamun has said that quota is discriminatory – that 56% of the jobs are being reserved for 5% of the population. And according to the Bangladesh Statistics Office, in 2016-17, 27 lakh people were unemployed in the country.