” 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 desire is one place now, and that’s the departure of the government”.
A system that allows more than half of legal service positions to be reserved for certain groups, including children of soldiers from the nation’s liberation battle against Pakistan, is the cause of this month’s unrest.
Hasina, 76, who has ruled the nation since 2009 and won her third consecutive election in January after a ballot without real criticism, is claimed as a beneficiary of the program.
Rights groups accuse Hasina’s state of using state institutions to bolster its hold on power and stifle criticism, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition protesters.
“MADE THE SITUATION WORS E”
The quota system is a pronounced cause of hatred among young graduates facing an acute jobs problems because Bangladesh is unable to provide sufficient work opportunities for its 170 million people.
Hasina heightened tensions this month by comparing activists to Bangladeshis who had worked with Pakistan before winning the country’s freedom.
” More than try to address the protesters ‘ problems, the president’s actions have made the situation worse”, Crisis Group’s Asia chairman Pierre Prakash told AFP.