Fresh violence in Bangladesh student protests
New clashes have erupted in Bangladesh between police and student protesters who are demanding justice for victims of recent unrest.
In the north-eastern city of Sylhet, officials reported that demonstrators had attacked police, prompting the use of tear gas on Wednesday. Similar clashes were reported in the capital Dhaka and other cities.
This month’s violence has claimed over 200 lives, primarily due to police gunfire, with nearly 10,000 people reportedly detained.
Photos from the southern city of Barisal, sent to BBC Bangla, depict police in riot gear and carrying batons, setting up barricades against protests, and arresting demonstrators, many of whom are women.
Wednesday’s “March for Justice” was organized by the Students Against Discrimination movement. The group stated that their demonstration was against “mass killings, arrests, attacks, and disappearances of students and citizens.”
Students have been protesting against attempts to reinstate quotas in civil service jobs for relatives of veterans from the country’s war for independence from Pakistan in 1971 for more than three weeks.
A third of public sector jobs had been set aside for them, but on 21 July the Supreme Court court ruled just 5% of the roles could be reserved.
The student movement believes the system is discriminatory and has demanded recruitment based on merit.
Organizers have demanded an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and for six ministers to resign over deadly clashes at the resulting protests.
The government blames the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami Party for the unrest.
The European Union has postponed talks with Bangladesh on a new cooperation agreement after criticism of the government’s crackdown.
On Tuesday, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned what he called the use of excessive force against protesters and asked for those responsible to be brought to justice.
The now-postponed cooperation deal had been intended to boost economic links between Bangladesh and the EU, the country’s main trading partner.
