Bangladesh continues curfew as students await official notification on government job reforms
DHAKA: Bangladesh remained under a curfew and widespread disconnection on Monday, a day after the Supreme Court struck down a controversial job creation system following clashes that killed 100 people. strong last week.
University students have been protesting since the beginning of this month to demand reform of the government system that allocates 30 percent of government jobs to the relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's liberation war. in 1971.
Peaceful protests turned violent last week, with clashes between student protesters and security forces killing 174 people and injuring thousands, according to a count by Bengali daily Prothom Alo reported dozens of deaths on Sunday alone.
Bangladesh remained under curfew for a third day on Monday, with the military patrolling the capital and other areas, while internet connections were down across the country since Thursday night.
“Everything is calm today across the country, except for a few isolated incidents in Dhaka, Narayanganj and Narsingdi,” Biplab Barua, special assistant to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, told Arab News.
“We hope that in the next 48 hours the situation will look better, and the country will go to normal work. Broadband internet service is expected to be restored tonight (Monday). As soon as the situation looks normal, the length of unexpected hours will decrease. ”
On Sunday, the Supreme Court ordered to cut the quota reserved for the relatives of veterans to 5 percent and 93 percent of the jobs are given on merit, while 2 percent the rest is reserved for members of ethnic minorities and people with disabilities. .
The Bangladesh High Court ruled on the appeal. The government canceled the deadlines after student protests in 2018 but the High Court reinstated them in June, sparking new protests.
“Our students are not responsible for the chaos and brutality in the streets. The opposition party … hijacked the movement from the students,” said Barua.
“The court has fulfilled the demands of the students, so on Tuesday the government will release the circulation about the quota in the public service.”
Students Against Apartheid, the main protest group, said on Monday that some of their demands, including the reopening of universities and an investigation into the deadly crackdown, had not been met.
The protesting students are also waiting for the government to issue an official notification on the Supreme Court decision.
“Because the curfew is on, we are not on the streets at the moment. This will put the lives of our students at risk,” said Sarjis Alam, coordinator of the protest with Students Against Discrimination, according to Arab News.
“Currently, we are waiting to see the government collection on the quota system… We demanded the reform of the quota system at all levels of the civil service… This is very important to us, ” he said. “(After) seeing the government collection, we can express our opinion if our demands are met or not.”
