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DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Several major universities in Bangladesh agreed to shut their doors Wednesday after at least six people died in violent campus protests, while protest organizers announced they would shut down all but essential services and relentless clashes between demonstrators and police stretched into the night.
After two days of demonstrations and unrest over the allocation of civil service jobs, the University Grants Commission urged all public and private universities to close until further notice. About a dozen major public universities said they would, according to officials and media reports. Wednesday was a public holiday in Bangladesh, so the number of universities that closed was expected to become clearer on Thursday.
Among them was Dhaka University, which was at the center of the violence. It has suspended classes and closed its dormitories indefinitely, a university official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
On Wednesday, the protesters announced they would enforce “a complete shutdown” across the country on Thursday in response to security officials' continued attacks on the campus demonstrators.
Asif Mahmud, one of the protest organizers, said on Facebook that only hospitals and other emergency services would be allowed to operate. There was no immediate response from authorities.
The country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party said Wednesday night that it would do what it could to make the shutdown a success.
The violence continued late Wednesday in Dhaka. Traffic was halted on a major highway as police fired teargas and rubber bullets at protesters who set fire to a toll booth, blocked streets and detonated explosives, Somoy TV reported.
Other news outlets said scores were injured in the hours of violence.
Protesters are demanding an end to a quota system that reserves up to 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. They argue that the system is discriminatory and benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose Awami League party led the independence movement, and they want it replaced with a merit-based system.
Hasina defended the quotas Tuesday, saying veterans deserve the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971, regardless of their current political affiliation.
“Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had,” she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.
Hasina's government halted the quotas after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh’s High Court nullified that decision and reinstated the quotas after relatives of the 1971 veterans filed petitions, triggering the latest demonstrations. The Supreme Court then suspended the High Court's ruling and is expected to rule on Aug. 7.
“I am requesting all to wait with patience until the verdict is delivered," Hasina said in a televised address Wednesday evening. "I believe our students will get justice from the apex court. They will not be disappointed.”
While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh’s private sector, many people prefer government jobs because they are stable and well paid. Each year, some 400,000 graduates compete for 3,000 jobs in the civil service exam.
Hasina said there would be a judicial probe into the deaths and vowed that those responsible would be brought to justice.
“Some precious lives have been lost unnecessarily,” she said. “I condemn every killing.”
The United Nations’ Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a post on the social platform X that all acts of violence and deadly use of force must be investigated and the perpetrators held accountable. Türk said freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fundamental human rights.
The protests began late last month but turned violent on Monday as protesters at Dhaka University clashed with police and counterprotesters organized by the Awami League's student wing, leaving 100 people injured. At least six people were killed Tuesday in continued violence in the capital Dhaka, the southeastern city of Chattogram and the northern city of Rangpur, authorities said.
There were new clashes Wednesday at Dhaka University, where police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters who carried empty coffins to represent the people killed, witnesses said. Paramilitary forces patrolled the streets of Dhaka and other major cities.
Police also clashed with BNP supporters in Dhaka after a funeral Wednesday for the six who died. Police official Sentu Mia said they used rubber bullets to disperse the protesters who they said attacked police, and several opposition activists were arrested. BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir accused police of barring their supporters from the funeral prayers.
Bangladesh's ruling party blamed the BNP for the chaos, and Dhaka police raided the party's headquarters late Tuesday. Detective Chief Harun-or-Rashid said police arrested seven members of the party’s student wing, and said detectives found 100 crude bombs, 500 wooden and bamboo sticks, and five to six bottles of gasoline in the raid.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior BNP leader, said the raid was a government attempt to divert attention from the protests.
Obaidul Quader, the Awami League's general secretary and a senior Cabinet minister, said “evil forces” had taken over the student movement, blaming the student wings of the BNP and rightist Jamaat-e-Islami party for Tuesday's violence.
Facebook has been occasionally inaccessible to Associated Press reporters in Bangladesh since the violence erupted, although other platforms such as Slack were working. The government has not commented on the disrupted service, but London-based internet monitor NetBlocks said there may have been an official crackdown.
“Our metrics indicate a high likelihood of intentional interference with Facebook as well as WhatsApp backend servers over the last few days in Bangladesh,” Alp Toker, the director of NetBlocks, told AP, adding that the disruption “appears to target the protests or their coverage and public visibility.”
Meta, which owns Facebook and WhatsApp, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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Associated Press reporter Barbara Ortutay contributed to this report from San Francisco, California.
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This story has been corrected to show the decision to abolish the quota system in 2018 was unrelated to a court order, but was an executive order by Hasina’s government.