DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladeshi students yesterday mourned classmates killed in protests over civil service hiring rules, a day after the government ordered the indefinite closure of schools nationwide to restore order.
Six people were killed on 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.
It was the most violent day so far in weeks of rallies demanding the end of a quota system for lucrative government jobs that opponents said unfairly benefits members of Bangladesh’s ruling party.
Protesters planned to gather to stage a public funeral ceremony for the dead in the capital Dhaka’s main university, the site of some of the most ferocious clashes.
“Our protests will also continue no matter how much violence they can unleash on us,” a student of the prestigious Dhaka University Chamon Fariya Islam told AFP.
Islam said students at the campus had evicted pro-government classmates from their dormitories in a bid to prevent further violence at the institution.
The government told every school, university and Islamic seminary in the country to shut their doors until further notice late on Tuesday, soon after deploying paramilitary forces to protest hotspots.
Police later raided the headquarters of the country’s main opposition party in central Dhaka, arresting seven members of its student wing. Detective branch chief Harun-or-Rashid told reporters that officers had found weapons at the Bangladesh Nationalist Party offices.
“We have found more than 100 Molotov cocktails here, five or six bottles of petrol, around 500 sticks and seven firearms,” he said.
Near-daily marches this month have demanded an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups.
“Millions of students in the country don’t have any hope for a government job,” Islam told AFP.
