- Court to announce verdict on abolishing job quota policy today.
- Curfew in place to tackle violent nationwide protests.
- Govt restricts flow of information due to internet blackout.
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court is due to rule Sunday (today) on the future of civil service hiring rules that sparked nationwide clashes between police and university students resulting in at least 133 fatalities so far.
The country’s top court will be convening later in the day to announce its verdict either in favour or against abolishing the contentious job quotas.
What began as a protest against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed this week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.
A curfew has been imposed since Friday with the government announcing a two-day holiday provisioning the closure of all offices and institutions in light of the prevailing unrest.
Soldiers are patrolling cities across Bangladesh after riot police failed to restore order, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.
Hasina, whose opponents accuse her government of bending the judiciary to her will, hinted to the public this week that the scheme would be scrapped.
But after the mounting crackdown and a rising death toll, a favourable verdict is unlikely to mollify white-hot public anger.
“It’s not about the rights of the students anymore,” business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, told AFP at the scene of a Saturday street protest, held in the capital Dhaka in defiance of a nationwide curfew.
“Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government,” he said.
The catalyst for this month’s unrest is a system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the 1971 war.
Critics say the scheme benefits families loyal to Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
With Bangladesh unable to provide adequate employment opportunities for its 170 million people, the quota scheme is a pronounced source of resentment among young graduates facing an acute job crisis.
“Rather than try to address the protesters’ grievances, the government’s actions have made the situation worse,” Crisis Group’s Asia director Pierre Prakash told AFP.
Hasina had been due to leave the country on Sunday for a diplomatic tour to Spain and Brazil but abandoned her plans after a week of escalating violence.
