Bangladesh continues curfew as students await official announcement on government job reforms
DHAKA: Bangladesh remains under curfew and a widespread communications blackout on Monday, a day after the Supreme Court scaled back a controversial job quota system following deadly clashes that have killed more than 100 people in the past week.
University students have been demonstrating since the beginning of this month to demand reform of the quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war.
The 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, which reported over a dozen deaths on Sunday alone.
Bangladesh remained under curfew for a third day on Monday, with military personnel patrolling the capital and other areas, while internet connectivity remained down across the country since it was suspended from Thursday night.
“Everything is in order 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 the situation will look better in the next 48 hours and that the country will go to normal operations. We expect to restore Internet broadband services this evening (Monday). As soon as the situation looks normal, the length of the curfew will be shortened .”
On Sunday, the Supreme Court ordered that the quota reserved for relatives of veterans be reduced to 5 percent and that 93 percent of the jobs be distributed on merit, while the remaining 2 percent be reserved for members of ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court ruled on an appeal. The government had abolished the quotas after student protests in 2018, but they were reinstated by the High Court in June, setting off a new round of demonstrations.
“Our students are not responsible for the anarchy and atrocities in the streets. It is the opposition parties … who hijacked the movement from the students,” Barua said.
“Students' demands have been met by the court and the government will issue a circular on the quota system in the government job by Tuesday.”
Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organizing group, said on Monday that some of their demands remain unmet, including the reopening of universities as well as investigations into the deadly crackdown.
Student protesters are also waiting for the government to issue an official notification on the Supreme Court's decision.
“Because the curfew is going on, we are not on the streets at the moment. It will endanger the lives of our students,” Sarjis Alam, a protest coordinator with Students Against Discrimination, told Arab News.
“At the moment, we are waiting to see the government circular on the quota system … We demanded reform of quota system in all grades of government jobs … It is very important for us,” he said. “(After) seeing the government's circular, we can comment on whether our demands were addressed or not.”
