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Bangladesh: Six Killed, Over 300 Hurt as Sheikh Hasina's Party Cracks Down on Anti-Quota Protestors

Protests continue to rage across university campuses today.
Students in an anti-quota rally in Bangladesh. Photo: X/@dhruv_rathee
Students in an anti-quota rally in Bangladesh. Photo: X/@dhruv_rathee

New Delhi: Six people have reportedly been killed in Bangladesh today, a day after almost 300 students were reported to have been injured in clashes between supporters of the ruling Awami League party and those agitating over the demand to end the quota system for government jobs.

Two of the deaths are from Dhaka, while the others are from Chattogram and Rangpur, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

AFP reported that Bangladesh’s government ordered an indefinite shutdown of schools, Islamic seminaries and vocational education institutes across the country in light of the clashes. Its report said this did not include the country’s universities.

Protests continued to rage across university campuses in Bangladesh on July 16.

Students at Rajshahi, Khulna, Mymensingh and Rangpur have gathered in the hundreds on roads and railway lines, ensuing blockades. The student-led protests demand the abolition of reservations and for merit-based civil service recruitments.

According to news agency reports, the quota system reserves 30% of government posts for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters,  10% for women and 10% for residents of specific districts. There are also quotas for ethnic minorities and the disabled people but the students are not opposing those.

Sheikh Hasina’s party has dealt with the protests – her first challenge since she got power for a fourth term in polls boycotted by the opposition – with a heavy hand.

The Daily Star has quoted a Rangpur teacher who visited Rangpur Medical College Hospital where the deceased student Abu Sayeed was taken, as having said that the student’s body was “covered in shotgun pellet wounds.”

Prothom Alo reports that on the intervening night of July 15 and 16, leaders of the Bangladesh Chhatra League – the ruling party’s student wing – led by its Rajshahi University unit president and general secretary conducted ‘searches’ armed with sticks at the campus. More members of the BCL had gathered at the Dhaka University campus, with hockey sticks and pipes, to hold a procession, it was reported.

The US has said that it is aware of the protests. In response to a question by a journalist, state department spokesperson Mathew Miller said, “So we are aware of and are monitoring reports of widespread student protests in Dhaka and around Bangladesh that have killed two (Prothom Alo noted that it did not have this information) and attacked and injured hundreds.”

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry has expressed disappointment at what is purportedly “unsubstantiated claims of at least two deaths from the ongoing student protests in Bangladesh,” according to Daily Star.

Miller added, “We condemn any violence against peaceful protesters. Our thoughts are with those who have been impacted by this violence.”

An editorial in the Daily Star on July 16 evening called on the Bangladesh government to take action against BCL members.

“Are we to assume that our law enforcers are helpless in the face of BCL’s wrath, or that BCL is now an armed extension of the state machinery?” the editorial said, adding that by “allowing and enabling such attacks, the government is essentially pushing the protesters to a point of no return”.

Many on social media have posted images showing violence perpetrated on students.

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