Recent violence during student protests in Bangladesh.
One of the demands made by protestors is that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina publicly apologize.
In Bangladesh, new violence has broken out between police and demonstrators who are calling for justice for those who have been harmed by recent upheaval.
Police in the northeastern city of Sylhet were forced to use tear gas on Wednesday due to protestor attacks, according to an official. There were reports of clashes in several locations, including the capital, Dhaka. In this month's unrest, almost 200 people have died, primarily as a result of police opening fire.
There have apparently been close to 10,000 arrests. Images supplied to BBC Bangla from the southern city of Barisal depict police blocking protests and removing demonstrators—many of whom are women—while dressed in riot gear and brandishing batons.
The Students Against selection campaign organized this Wednesday's "March for Justice".For over three weeks, students have been demonstrating against efforts to bring back civil service employment quotas for veterans' families from the nation's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. Although a third of public sector positions had been designated for them, the Supreme Court decided on July 21 that only 5% of those positions could be reserved. The student movement has called for recruitment to be done solely on the basis of merit since they feel the system is biased.
In response to the violent altercations that occurred during the protests, the organizers have called for six ministers to step down and an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The main opposition parties, Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, are held accountable by the government for the disturbance. Due to criticism of the government's crackdown, the European Union decided to postpone negotiations with Bangladesh on a new cooperative agreement.
Josep Borrell, the bloc's head of foreign policy, denounced on Tuesday what he called the excessive use of force against demonstrators and demanded that those in charge be held accountable. The purpose of the now-postponed cooperation agreement was to strengthen economic ties between Bangladesh and the EU, its principal trading partner.
