India on Thursday issued an advisory to its nationals and students in Bangladesh, urging them to restrict movement outside their living premises. The advisory comes in the wake of the ongoing quota violence across parts of the country claiming six lives. India also issued some 24-hour emergency numbers.
“In view of the ongoing situation in Bangladesh, the Indian community members and the Indian students residing in Bangladesh are advised to avoid travel and minimise their movement outside their living premises,” the advisory read.
“In case of any urgency or need for assistance, please reach out to the High Commission and our Assistant High Commissions,” it stated. There were approximately 7,000 Indians in Bangladesh, according to the High Commission’s website.
On Wednesday, student protesters demanding reforms in the quota system in government jobs announced plans to enforce a complete nationwide shutdown on Thursday in response to the actions of the security forces. The clashes left at least six people, including four students, dead across the country.
A key coordinator of the movement, Asif Mahmud, in a Facebook post, said all establishments, barring hospitals and emergency services, will remain closed, and only ambulance services will be permitted to operate.
The movement urges students from all educational institutions to participate and calls on guardians to support their cause, a newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, authorities called out the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) troops in four major cities after hundreds of policemen in riot gear fanned out in public university campuses across the country.
The violence prompted the government to close all public and private universities alongside schools and colleges across Bangladesh for an indefinite period on late Tuesday asking residential students to leave dormitories.
The clashes erupted on Monday as activists of ruling Awami League’s student front confronted the protestors who insist 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 police. Student protesters have decided to enforce a complete nationwide shutdown on Thursday.
Fifty-six per cent of government jobs are reserved under the current quota system with 30 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 the handicapped people.
Every year, some 3,000 government jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates. The protestors waged the campaign for the reform of the system saying it was debarring meritorious students’ recruitment in first-class and second-class government jobs.
