Thousands of students armed with sticks and rocks clashed with armed police in Dhaka on Thursday as Bangladesh authorities cut some mobile internet services to quell anti-quota protests that have claimed at least 12 lives this week.
These nationwide protests, the largest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s re-election to a fourth term, are driven by high youth unemployment, with nearly a fifth of the 170 million population out of work or education. Six people died in clashes with police in Dhaka on Thursday, including a bus driver with a bullet wound to his chest and a student, officials told Reuters. Hundreds more were injured.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government is open to dialogue with the protesters, who demand an end to the 30% quota of government jobs reserved for families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Despite the protests, Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence, has so far rejected the demands.
“We are willing to sit (and talk with them). Whenever they want to sit in the discussion, it will happen,” Huq said.
Earlier, police fired tear gas to scatter protesters near a Dhaka university campus, and authorities cut some mobile internet services to limit the demonstrations. Police also used tear gas to disperse stone-throwing students who blocked a highway in the southern port city of Chittagong.
The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka announced it would close on Thursday and advised its citizens to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. The Indian embassy issued a similar advisory.
Authorities have shut all public and private universities indefinitely from Wednesday and deployed riot police and the Border Guard paramilitary force to university campuses to maintain order
