Bangladesh Government Orders Army to Shoot Curfew Violators Amid Student Protests

The Bangladesh regime has ordered the Bangladesh Army to shoot violators of a newly declared curfew. This strict measure was confirmed by Obaidul Quader, Minister of Road Transport and Bridges and General Secretary of the ruling Awami League party, who said that the order had been given to “shoot on sight.”

The curfew follows a rise in protests by students calling on the government to abolish its much-criticized quota system, under which more than half of all civil service posts are reserved for certain groups, such as relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s independence war with Pakistan in 1971—a turning point in the life of the country that resulted in its freedom.

The present political class in Bangladesh, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, happens to have close personal links with the generation that took part in the independence war. Prime Minister Hasina is the daughter of modern Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Her father was assassinated in 1975. Those reserved roles, associated with the quota system, are secure jobs that come with higher pay, and demonstrators say that the system is unfair and that it merely caters to people from among the supporters of Hasina’s ruling Awami League party; hence, they want recruitment on the basis of merit rather than on the basis of quotas.

The protests have been marked by rising tension. Some even feared violent clashes as the government ordered the army to deploy on the streets in a bid to enforce the curfew. How the government acts, as well as what the army does in the next days, will be vital in determining what direction these protests take and the quota system’s future in Bangladesh.