DHAKA: Thousands of students across Bangladeshlink> staged protests andsit-ins Monday after clashes at the country’s top university left at least100 people injured.Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at Dhaka Universitylink> students fighting whatthey consider “discriminatory” government job quotas in favour of specialgroups.
It was one of the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inher decade in power.
A minister was due to meet protest leaders in Dhaka on Monday.
But students at state-run universities in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi,Barisal, Rangpur, Sylhet and Savar boycotted classes and staged sit-ins,police and media said.
“More than 1,000 students joined the demonstrations at JahangirnagarUniversity link>,”said Ataur Rahman link>, aprotester in Savar where the university is located.
The clashes, which began Sunday night and went into the early hours ofMonday, turned Dhaka University into a battleground.
Copycat protests soon started in other major cities as thousands ofstudents boycotted classes and staged sit-ins.
Organisers in Dhaka said they were holding peaceful protests when policestarted firing tear gas and rubber bullets. They used batons and watercannon to clear a central square.
As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female studentslaunched into pitched battles with police.
“More than 100 people were injured,” police inspector Bacchu Mia told AFP,adding they were treated in hospital but their condition was not serious.
Protesters threw rocks, vandalised the home of the Dhaka Universityvice-chancellor, torched two cars and ransacked the fine arts institute,said senior police officer Azimul Haquelink>.
Fifteen people were detained, police said.
The students are angry at the government’s decision to set aside 56 percentof civil service jobs for the families of veterans from the 1971 war ofindependence and for disadvantaged minorities. That leaves most universitygraduates to fight for only 44 percent of the jobs.
Hasan Al Mamun, a leader of the protests, said tens of thousands ofstudents joined the demonstrations nationwide. Police declined to estimatethe number.
Al Mamun said the quota for top-grade jobs should be reduced to only 10 percent.