Up to 1,200 have been arrested in Bangladesh as a result of protests against a new quota system on the labor market. In addition, 174 have been killed in connection with the protests.
This is shown by two counts carried out by the French news agency AFP. The media writes this on Tuesday.
Among the dead are both protesting students and several police officers.
Since the beginning of July, students in Bangladesh have protested against the new quota system in the labor market. The unrest gathered pace last week.
Among other things, the quota system means that up to half of the vacant jobs in the state must go to relatives of war veterans from the country’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971. A decision that, according to critics, will benefit people who support Hasina’s government.
This has created deep dissatisfaction among many young people who experience high unemployment.
On the night of Saturday, the government imposed a nationwide curfew and sent the military into the streets.
It happened when it became clear that the police could not control the demonstrators alone.
Subsequently, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system on Sunday, but did not completely abolish it.
With its decision, the Supreme Court also called on students who have participated in the large demonstrations to return to school.
The group of demonstrating students suspended the demonstrations for 48 hours on Monday.
The authorities’ response to the demonstrations has been criticized by, among others, the Bangladeshi Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
In a statement, Yunus calls on “world leaders and the United States to do everything they can to put an end to the violence”.
83-year-old Yunus, as an economist and founder of Grameen Bank, an institution that offers microcredit to help its clients achieve creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency, has helped millions out of poverty.
– Young people are randomly killed every day, says Yunus to AFP.
– The hospitals do not reveal the correct number of injured and killed, it goes on.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
