The Bangladesh government on Thursday expressed willingness to hold talks with students protesting against the quota system in jobs after fresh violence erupted across the country as they attempted to enforce a nationwide shutdown over the issue.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel were deployed across the country including the capital, to maintain law and order, the official BSS news agency reported.
Addressing a press conference, Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government decided to sit in for a dialogue with protesting students and entrusted him and Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury to initiate discussions.
"Whenever they agree, we will sit...it could be held this (Thursday) afternoon,” he said.
"Government has agreed to hold talks with the quota reformists," he told journalists at a press briefing.
Huq also said Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the law minister to take the initiative to hold an early hearing of the quota-related case pending with the Supreme Court, PTI reported.
He said he had instructed the Attorney General to take the initiative on this, and the AG will file an appeal with the Supreme Court on Sunday seeking an early hearing of the case.
The government has decided to form a judicial probe committee led by High Court Justice Khandaker Diliruzzaman to investigate the violent incidents that have claimed at least seven lives, including four students.
The committee will be formed upon receiving approval from the chief justice.
The law minister also requested the protesters to either end or suspend their protest as the government is ready to hold talks with them.
Fresh violence erupted in Bangladesh on Thursday after an overnight lull as thousands of students attempted to enforce a nationwide shutdown.
Mainstream media and witnesses said the protesters clashed with police, leaving many people injured and prompting people to stay indoors. Owners preferred to keep many shopping malls shut.
According to TV footage, riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas canisters to disperse protesters while students aligned with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League confronted them on the streets with bricks and bamboo sticks.
Witnesses said the protesters laid siege to the state-run Bangladesh Television Bhaban in the Rampura area in Dhaka and damaged a part of the building while some 1,200 staff, including journalists, were stranded inside.
The protesters overnight vowed to enforce a “complete shutdown” after days of demonstrations and violent clashes that left at least seven dead.
The seventh death was reported on Thursday in Dhaka.
Government offices and banks were open as paramilitary BGB, riot police and elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) patrolled the streets of Dhaka and other major cities, but the attendance appeared thin because of limited transport.
Many offices asked their staff to work from home.
Bus services between Dhaka and the rest of the country were also cut off, with people staying at home.
Staff members at different bus counters in Dhaka's Gabtoli and Sayedabad Bus Terminal told The Daily Star that bus owners have asked them not to run
any buses.
Many bus counters at the terminal were closed. Additionally, buses were seen parked at the terminal.
Local markets and shopping malls had limited entry points open. Some roadside shops were open, while others remained closed.
The clashes erupted on Monday as activists of ruling Awami League’s student front confronted the protesters who insisted the existing quota system was largely debarring the enrolment of meritorious students in government services.
Demonstrators accused the ruling party’s student wing, Bangladesh Chhatra League, of attacking their “peaceful protests” with backing from the police.
Fifty-six per cent of government jobs are reserved under the current quota system, with 30 per cent being for the descendants of the 1971 Liberation War freedom fighters, 10 per cent for backward administrative districts, 10 per cent for women, five per cent for ethnic minority groups and one per cent for physically challenged people.
Every year some 3,000 government jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.
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