Student protests over Bangladesh job quota leave at least 100 injured
Al Jazeera
At least 100 injured as students and anti-quota demonstrators clash over coveted government jobs.
Police fired tear gas and charged with batons during violent clashes between protesters rallying against quotas for government jobs and a pro-government student body, leaving at least 100 people wounded, police and students said.
The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid civil service posts, totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs, for specific groups, including children of fighters in the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The violence started on Monday at campuses, including Jahangirnagar University in Savar, outside the capital, Dhaka, where the protesters were demanding an end to the quota for family members of people who fought in the war.
Police and witnesses said hundreds of anti-quota protesters and students backing the ruling Awami League party battled for hours on Monday on the Dhaka University campus, hurling rocks, fighting with sticks and beating each other with iron rods.
More protests are expected on Tuesday.
