Three Dead In Bangladesh In Anti-Government Demonstrations



Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets when groups of students demanded the suppression of quotas and faced a counter-demonstration by supporters of the Awami League, the ruling party, armed with batons and throwing stones.



The day before, around 400 people had been injured during clashes with their opponents.


In the southwestern port city of Chittagong, a student and a worker were killed, said Ala Uddin, police inspector at Chittagong Medical College hospital.


In Rangpur, a city in the north of the country, police commissioner Mohammad Moniruzzaman told the AFP news agency that a student was killed in the clashes, without providing details. Yunus Ali, director of Rangpur Medical College hospital, said the student "was taken to the hospital by other students", adding that "his body showed injuries".


On Tuesday, groups of rival students paraded in several parts of Dhaka, attacking each other with bricks.


"They demonstrated in at least a dozen places in the capital," Dhaka metropolitan police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.


Hundreds of students gathered in other regions of Bangladesh, blocking railways and highways.


For weeks now, students have been holding almost daily demonstrations to demand that the Government abandon the quota system for public service jobs, and demand a system based on merit.


This system is intended to reserve more than half of the well-paid and highly sought-after civil servant positions for certain categories of the population, a measure that students consider discriminatory.


In this way, 30% of civil servant positions would be reserved for children who were involved in the Bangladeshi independence struggle in 1971, now adults, 10% for women and 10% for specific districts.


From the challengers' perspective, only the quotas allocated to ethnic minorities and disabled people (6% of places) should be maintained.


Critics also believe that this quota system is designed to favor supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Having led the country since 2009, he won his fourth consecutive legislative elections last January, in a vote boycotted by the opposition, which called it a "simulacrum".


Monday's clashes were the most violent since the movement began.


Amnesty International (AI) condemned this violence and called on Bangladesh to "immediately guarantee the safety of all peaceful protesters".


US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also denounced the "violence against peaceful protesters".