Bangladesh suspends internet amid protests over job quotas
DHAKA—Police fired tear gas to scatter protesters in Bangladesh on Thursday, while authorities cut some mobile internet services as violent clashes that have killed six and injured hundreds this week showed no signs of slowing.
Shops and offices were open in Dhaka, the capital, but there were fewer buses on the streets, as a call for a nationwide shutdown from students demanding the abolition of a job quota system drew little response.
“Mobile internet has been temporarily suspended due to various rumors and the unstable situation created … on social media,” Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the junior information technology minister, told reporters.
Services would be restored once the situation returned to normal, he added.
Deaths
The demonstrations started last month after the High Court reinstated a quota system for government jobs.
That move covered the 30 percent of jobs reserved for family members of freedom fighters in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.
But the Supreme Court suspended the high court order after the government’s appeal, setting a date of Aug. 7 to hear the government’s challenge.
However, the students stepped up their protest when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina refused to meet their demands, citing the court proceedings.
Six people were killed Tuesday in clashes around the country as rival student groups attacked each other with hurled bricks and bamboo rods, and police dispersed rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets.
Appropriate punishment
Authorities had shut all public and private universities indefinitely from Wednesday and sent riot police and the Border Guard paramilitary force to university campuses to keep order.
Hasina promised her government would set up a judicial panel to investigate the deaths after police fired bullets and tear gas to scatter protesters.
Hasina, whose administration is accused by protesters of misusing the quota scheme to stack coveted government jobs with loyalists, condemned the killings and insisted that perpetrators would be brought to justice.
“I condemn every murder,” she said on Wednesday evening, after a day of clashes between police forces and demonstrators.
“I firmly declare that those who carried out murders, looting and violence—whoever they are—I will make sure they will be given the appropriate punishment.”
Rights groups, such as Amnesty International, as well as the United Nations and the United States, have urged Bangladesh to protect peaceful protesters from violence. —reports from Reuters, AFP
