Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi students have been taking to the streets against a quota system for public sector jobs, and state violence that has claimed at least 105 lives. As clashes turn violent, the protests are transforming into a movement calling for systemic change.
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00:00Chaos on the streets of Dhaka. Bangladeshi police and pro-government
00:05groups are clashing with student protesters who've blocked this major
00:10street in the country's capital. It's just one of several clashes between
00:17students and pro-government forces that have rocked the streets of Bangladesh
00:20this week. Conflicts that have killed at least 105 people. Student groups are
00:26protesting a quota system for high-paying public sector jobs, which they
00:31say favors the ruling party's allies. And it comes as the country faces an
00:36unemployment crisis. The quota system reserves 30% of public sector jobs for
00:42children and grandchildren of Bangladeshi veterans of the 1971 War of
00:47Independence against Pakistan. The rest are reserved for minorities, leaving less
00:52than half of civic jobs available. The quota system was originally abolished
00:57in 2018, but the country's High Court reinstated it in June, saying its
01:02removal was unconstitutional.
01:06Protests started peacefully after the High Court made its ruling. But tensions
01:23flared on July 14th, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made controversial remarks,
01:28referring to protesters as rajakars, a term for collaborators who killed
01:33Bangladesh's pro-independence fighters.
01:36They are not really people that Bangladeshis want to be named after. So
01:43that agitated them. And at the middle of the night, they started taking positions
01:48outside, said, if you're saying that we're rajakars, okay fine, we're rajakars, we are
01:53all rajakars. The Prime Minister's comments and footage showing police
01:57working with a ruling party student wing to attack protesters have fueled rallies
02:02across the country. Although the current government has filed a petition against
02:17the High Court's ruling, the violence in the streets means protesters want more
02:21than just a quota system gone. Now, it's not only about the quota movement. They
02:27have, the government have shot kids, young, very young children died in the
02:33streets, in the hand of police. Blood have shed, like, their friends have died in
02:41numbers, and they're demanding the government to step down. And now,
02:48Bangladesh has gone dark as the government shut down the internet,
02:52bringing media outlets to a halt. Schools have been shutted to de-escalate tensions,
02:58while residents are subject to strict curfews. But with protesters still on the streets,
03:04and police struggling to quell their anger, it's a level of unrest not seen in Bangladesh
03:09since its independence. Izen Pan, Billy Wu, and Gina Lopez for Taiwan Plus.