Three killed, dozens injured in Bangladesh’s violent over quota system in jobs
The demonstrations are in response to a High Court ruling in June that reinstated a controversial quota system for government jobs.
DHAKA: Three people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation’s capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota system, local media reports said.
Two of the dead were students and the third was a pedestrian, the reports added.
The deaths were reported Tuesday after an overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The overnight violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.
Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.
They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some even said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students’ emotions.
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