Authorities have deployed riot police, along with the Border Guard Bangladesh paramilitary force, at university campuses across the country to maintain law and order.
Late on Tuesday, the University Grants Commission ordered all universities to shut down and instructed students to vacate the premises immediately for security reasons. High schools, colleges and other educational institutions were also shut.
Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the anti-quota protests, said students will hold processions on Wednesday carrying coffins in solidarity with those that lost their lives.
“Many have left the dormitories out of fear due to attacks by cadres of the student league (the student wing of the ruling party),” said a female student of Dhaka University, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal.
“Still, many students remain, especially in the men’s dormitories. Those of us currently staying in the dorms are not leaving easily.”
Police raided the headquarters of the main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in Dhaka around midnight on Tuesday and arrested seven activists, including a former leader of its student wing.
Harun Or Rashid, the head of police’s detective branch, said they recovered 100 crude bombs and several bottles of petrol during the raid that was conducted after a bus was set on fire near the BNP office.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the senior joint secretary of BNP, condemned the raid and said the government planted the recovered items to discredit the anti-quota protests.
The protests are the first significant challenge to Hasina’s government since she secured a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by the BNP.
Experts attribute the unrest to stagnant job growth in the private sector, making government jobs, which offer regular wage hikes and other privileges, increasingly desirable.
Currently, 56 per cent of government jobs in Bangladesh are reserved under various quotas, including 10 per cent for women, 10 per cent for people from underdeveloped districts, 5 per cent for indigenous communities, and 1 per cent for people with disabilities.
