Bangladesh student protests: Demonstrators storm prison, free hundreds of inmates
File photo.
Students in Bangladesh protesting thegovernment's job quota system stormeda prison and freed hundreds of inmates on Friday (Jul19)as police struggled to quell unrest. Speaking to the news agency AFP, a police officer said that protestersstormed a jail in the central district of Narsingdi and freed the facility's inmates before setting the prisonon fire.
"I don't know the number of inmates, but it would be in the hundreds," the officer said.
The ongoing unrest in the country has killed at least 105people and injured hundreds of others, as of late Friday, reported AFP.
In Dhaka, the police tookthe drastic step of banning all public gatherings for the day -- a first since protests began -- to forestall another day of violence.
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'Protests will continue'
Speaking to AFP, a student protester said on Friday that the demonstrations would continue, adding the demonstratorsdemand an immediate resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
"The government is responsible for the killings," the student protester said. According to the news agency, police fire was thecause of more than half of the deaths reported so far this week.
Also watch |Why are Bangladeshi students protesting against job quotas?
On Thursday, nearly half of Bangladesh's 64 districtsreported clashes. More than 700 people were wounded throughout the day including 104 police officers and 30 journalists.
'An eruption of simmering discontent...'
The agitation has been callingfor an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the 1971 war.
Critics have said that the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back PM Hasina.
"This is an eruption of the simmering discontent of a youth population built over years due to economic and political disenfranchisement," Ali Riaz, a politics professor at Illinois State University, told AFP.
"The job quotas became the symbol of a system which is rigged and stacked against them by the regime," Riaz added.
(With inputs from agencies)