Bangladesh continues curfew as students await official announcement of government labor market reforms
DHAKA: Bangladesh remained under a curfew and experienced a widespread communications blackout on Monday, a day after the Supreme Court rolled back a controversial job quota system following deadly clashes that left more than 100 people dead last week.
Since the beginning of this month, university students have been demonstrating for a reform of the quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence.
The peaceful protests turned violent last week. Clashes between protesting students and security forces left 174 people dead and thousands injured, according to a count by the Bengali daily Prothom Alo, which reported more than a dozen deaths on Sunday alone.
Bangladesh remained under a curfew for the third straight day on Monday, with military personnel patrolling the capital and other areas while internet connectivity remained disrupted across the country after being cut off on Thursday evening.
“Today everything is fine 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 improve in the next 48 hours and the country will return to normal. We expect to restore broadband internet services this evening (Monday). Once the situation returns to normal, the curfews will be relaxed.”
On Sunday, the Supreme Court ordered the quota for relatives of veterans to be cut to five percent and 93 percent of jobs to be awarded on merit, while the remaining two percent should 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 Supreme Court in June, sparking a new wave of demonstrations.
“Our students are not responsible for the anarchy and atrocities on the streets. It is the opposition parties … that have snatched the movement from the students,” Barua said.
“The court has accepted the students' demands and the government will issue a circular on the quota system in the civil service by Tuesday.”
Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organization, said on Monday that some of its demands had still not been met, including the reopening of universities and investigations into the deadly raids.
The protesting students are also waiting for an official communication from the government regarding the Supreme Court's decision.
“As the curfew is in effect, we are not on the streets at the moment. That would endanger the lives of our students,” Sarjis Alam, a protest coordinator with Students Against Discrimination, told Arab News.
“At the moment we are waiting for the government's circular on the quota system… We are demanding a reform of the quota system for all public service jobs… This is very important to us,” he said. “After we see the government's circular, we will be able to judge whether our demands have been taken into account or not.”
