Huge protests across Bangladesh escalated into deadly violence this week with clashes\u00a0between students, pro-government supporters\u00a0and armed police fueling\u00a0widespread\u00a0anger over civil service job quotas opponents say are discriminatory. <\/p>\n
Dozens of people have reportedly been killed and hundreds injured in the violence, which has seen riot police use tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters and crowds of demonstrators armed with sticks filling the streets and university campuses in the capital Dhaka and other cities. <\/p>\n
State broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV) was off air on Friday after student demonstrators allegedly set fire to its headquarters, according to local media, and protesters have called for a nationwide shutdown in a major challenge to the government of longstanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. <\/p>\n
Mobile and internet services have been cut, schools and universities ordered to close, and security forces deployed to quell the unrest, with human rights groups accusing authorities of using unlawful force against protesters. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you need to know. <\/p>\n
Many Bangladeshi students are demanding an end to the government\u2019s quota system, which reserves more than half of\u00a0civil service posts for certain groups. <\/p>\n
Some 30% of those highly sought-after jobs are reserved for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh\u2019s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, a seminal moment in the nation\u2019s history as it successfully won freedom from a much larger ruler. <\/p>\n
Many of the country\u2019s contemporary political elite are related to that generation \u2013 including Prime Minister Hasina, a daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the widely regarded founder of modern Bangladesh who was assassinated in 1975. <\/p>\n
The reserved roles are linked to\u00a0job security and higher pay, and protesters say the quota system is discriminatory and favors supporters of Hasina\u2019s ruling Awami League party. They are demanding recruitment based on merit. <\/p>\n
\u201cA government job is a really good opportunity,\u201d said Maruf Khan, 29, a Bangladeshi studying in Australia, who has joined rallies supporting the protests in Sydney. \u201cAbout 500,000 to 600,000 people are competing for 600 to 700 government jobs and on top of that it includes a 56% quota. It\u2019s not easy.\u201d <\/p>\n
Driving the anger is high unemployment levels in the country, especially among young people. Bangladesh has seen strong economic growth under Hasina, but it has slowed in the post-pandemic era and, as the World Bank notes in its latest overview, inequality has \u201cwidened in urban areas.\u201d\u00a0In a nation of 170 million people, more than 30 million are not in work or education. <\/p>\n
In 2018, the quota system was scrapped following similar protests but in June the High Court reinstated it, ruling its removal was unconstitutional. On July 10, the Supreme Court suspended the quotas for one month while it took up the case. <\/p>\n
Critics and protesters say the quota system creates a two-tier Bangladesh where a politically connected elite benefit by their birth. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe freedom fighters have sacrificed a lot for the nation \u2026 for that reason this quota was a logical thing in the past,\u201d said student protester Tahmeed Hossain. \u201cBut there have been at least two generations after that. Nowadays, the quota \u2026 has rather become a form of discrimination. It has become a cultural propaganda to create a stronghold in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n
The protests began at the prestigious Dhaka University on July 1 and later spread to other campuses and cities nationwide in almost daily street gatherings that included rail and road blockades. <\/p>\n
The demonstrations became violent on July 15 when members of the Bangladesh Chatra League \u2013 the\u00a0student wing of the ruling Awami League party \u2013 reportedly attacked student protesters inside the Dhaka University campus. <\/p>\n
Since then, clashes between security forces, protesters and government supporters have escalated, with Bangladesh deploying its paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2021 after \u201cwidespread allegations of serious human rights abuses.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone threw a small thing at us that blew up and I heard shots. I started running and realized that I had been hurt by some splinters in my hands. The police then attacked us with tear shell in the building,\u201d he said. \u201cOne of my friends got hit by a (rubber) bullet in the leg. Some of my friends got their heads smashed and are currently under treatment in the hospital.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another protester in Dhaka, Hassan Abdullah, said Thursday: \u201cThere are tear (gas) shells just 50 meters away from me as I am talking to you. The police are constantly bursting sound grenades right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reports of the number of people killed has varied widely, with the Dhaka-based newspaper Prothom Alo saying 19 people were killed on Thursday alone and the Agence France-Press news agency reporting\u00a032 deaths, citing its own tally compiled from hospital data. <\/p>\n
Authorities have also moved to block online communications. <\/p>\n
Internet monitoring site Netblocks confirmed a \u201cnear-total national internet shutdown\u201d across Bangladesh on Thursday. \u201cThe new measure follows earlier efforts to throttle social media and restrict mobile data services,\u201d it said on X. <\/p>\n
The demonstrations are the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Hasina since she secured a fourth consecutive term in January elections, which were boycotted by the main opposition party to protest what they said was a widespread crackdown on their ranks. <\/p>\n
Hasina has announced a judicial investigation into the killings and called on protesters to await the verdict of the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n
\u201cI especially urge everyone to wait patiently until the Supreme Court verdict comes. I believe our students will get justice from high court, they will not be disappointed,\u201d Hasina said in a news conference Thursday. <\/p>\n
But she has been accused of enflaming\u00a0protester anger by reportedly calling them \u201crazakar,\u201d\u00a0 an offensive term used for those who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 independence war. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected an apology from our prime minister for comparing us to traitors of 1952 and 1972, and a solid solution to quota reform,\u201d said protester Salman Farsi. \u201cWhat did the students do to deserve this tag?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a people\u2019s movement against the authoritarian government,\u201d Hossain said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just about quota protests anymore, this is much bigger than that, in simple quota protests the government wouldn\u2019t go around hurting and shooting students. This shows the current fascist and autocratic nature of the government, who has been upholding the power without any proper voting system.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bangladeshi students have held smaller protests elsewhere,\u00a0including in New York\u2019s Times Square, the Australian cities Melbourne and Sydney and the Danish capital Copenhagen. <\/p>\n
The US said it was \u201ccontinuing to monitor the reports of violence from the ongoing protests in and around Dhaka,\u201d a State Department spokesperson said in a briefing on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cFreedom of expression and peaceful assembly are essential building blocks to any thriving democracy, and we condemn the recent acts of violence in Bangladesh.\u201d <\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u00a0called for restraint on all sides and urged the government to investigate all acts of violence, according to UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe secretary-general encourages the meaningful and constructive participation of youth to address the ongoing challenges in Bangladesh. Violence can never be the solution,\u201d Dujarric said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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