Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held an emergency meeting with university vice chancellors and college principals on Saturday night amid growing tensions. Student leaders had refused to attend talks with the government and instead called for Hasina's resignation, days after over 200 people died in anti-quota protests.
The prime minister held a "view-exchange meeting with the vice-chancellors of public and private universities, senior teachers and college principals at Ganobhaban (PM’s official residence),” a PMO spokesman said, news agency PTI reported.
Without giving any detail, he said the meeting discussed the “overall situation created over the students’ campaign and the way out to overcome it”, while the teachers vowed to work in unison to “save the students from the clutches of the evil forces”.
Protest Over Killings And Mass Arrests
The nearly three hour-meeting started after tens of thousands of students, their guardians and ordinary people joined a mammoth protest rally at Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka against the killings and mass arrests over quota system for government jobs.
Bangladesh recently witnessed violent clashes between the police and mostly student protesters demanding an end to a controversial quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.
All-Out Civil Disobedience
The protestors chanted anti-government slogans, some calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina while identical protests were staged in several other major cities amid reports of scattered clashes.
Protest leaders called for a nationwide civil disobedience movement starting Sunday, urging officials and law enforcement to join them against the government.
“We announce the abolition of the government and the fascist regime. That's why we call for a student uprising. We want to build a Bangladesh where autocracy will never return. Our sole demand is the resignation of this government, including Sheikh Hasina, and the end of fascism,” one of the key-protest coordinators Nahid Islam told the rally.
Prime Minister Hasina had invited protesting students to meet for talks on Friday, a day after new protests erupted on Friday, leaving two people dead and more than 100 injured as over 2,000 protesters gathered in parts of the capital, some shouting “down with the autocrat” and demanding justice for victims.
However, coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement said on Friday that they had no plan to hold talks with the government, and overnight, they called a nationwide street protest and “all-out non-cooperation” or civil disobedience campaign.
Two Police Officials Suspended
Two police officials were suspended for their "unprofessional conduct" after they opened fire on protesters at Northwestern Rangpur University, killing second-year student Abu Sayeed.
The incident, captured on video and photos, showed Sayeed standing alone with his arms outstretched, challenging police, when an officer shot him multiple times. Sayeed's death sparked outrage among students.
