Six people have died and over 400 have been injured in large demonstrations in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. The demonstrators are said to have been attacked by government-backed student groups with machetes and clubs.
On Monday, large demonstrations were held at two universities in Dhaka, where demonstrators were attacked with stones, clubs, machetes, and Molotov cocktails by student activists linked to the ruling party. The police are also said to have fired tear gas at the demonstrators.
In other parts of the country, railway lines and highways were blocked by demonstrators.
On Tuesday afternoon, the protests resumed at several locations around Dhaka, with new clashes between rival student groups throwing bricks at each other.
All upper secondary schools, universities, and Islamic educational institutions are now ordered to close indefinitely, according to a spokesperson from the Education Department.
The violence on Monday was a sudden escalation after students had been protesting almost daily for several weeks to get the government to abolish the quota system for government jobs. Instead, they want the government to introduce a merit-based system.
The quota system means that more than half of the well-paid positions in the public sector are reserved for special groups, including children of heroes from the country's liberation war against Pakistan in 1971. Although job opportunities have increased in Bangladesh's private sector, government jobs are still in high demand.
