Violence continues in Bangladesh over job quota, 19 more die in clashes

The new casualties brings the overall toll to 25 dead since Monday when violence erupted at the prestigious Dhaka University

Dhaka: Police and government supporters clashed with student activists trying to shut down transportation across Bangladesh as part of days-long protests over the allocation of government jobs, and media reports said 19 people died in the violence. The new casualties on Thursday would bring the overall toll to 25 dead since Monday when violence erupted at the prestigious Dhaka University in the capital.

Violence pitting protesters against pro-government student groups and police soon spread to other cities. Six people had been reported killed on Tuesday, and hundreds more have been injured. Authorities did not immediately confirm figures for the deaths. The protesters are demanding an end to a quota system that reserves up to 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.

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They argue the system is discriminatory and benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and they want it replaced with a merit-based system. Hasina’s party has accused opposition parties of stoking the violence.

The leading Dhaka-based newspaper ‘Prothom Alo’, which has a strong network of reporters across the country, said that by late Thursday night, they received reports of 19 deaths in Dhaka and elsewhere in the day’s raging violence. The country’s leading English-language ‘Daily Star’ also reported 19 deaths on Thursday.

‘Prothom Alo’ said at least six people died in Dhaka’s Uttara area alone in the latest clashes pitting the protesters against security officials and ruling party activists. Thirteen others, including a Dhaka-based journalist of an online portal died in other parts of the capital and elsewhere.

Protesters attacked the head office of state-run Bangladesh Television, breaking through a main gate and setting vehicles and the reception area on fire. Meanwhile, the country was experiencing a near-total shutdown of internet services, Alp Toker, director of the London-based internet monitor NetBlocks, said on X.