Over thousand people arrested in Bangladesh due to protests

NEW DELHI, Bangladesh | TASS | Law enforcement agencies of Bangladesh have detained more than a thousand participants of protests against the quota system for employment in public positions, AFP reported, citing local police.

According to the news agency, more than 500 people were arrested in Dhaka, and another 200 in the Narayanganj and Narsingdi areas in the central part of the country. There is also information about those detained in other regions. The total number of detainees is 1,100.

One of the leaders of the protest movement said earlier that the demonstrations will be stopped for 48 hours due to the high number of casualties caused by the clashes. It is known that at least 163 people died in the clashes, including several police officers. According to local military officials, the situation in the country is now under control.

The protests in Bangladesh began when hundreds of students from private and public universities took to the streets in different cities of the country, claiming that quotas for relatives of veterans of the 1971 war of independence were discriminatory when applying for government jobs. Nearly 32 million young people in the country of 170 million are unemployed or don’t have vocational training. They say the authorities are not doing enough to combat unemployment and are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Because of the protests, the Internet and television in Bangladesh have been shut down, and communications have been disrupted. Troops have been deployed in Dhaka and other cities, and a curfew is in effect.

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SOURCE: TASS