Amid massive protests in Bangladesh, a Bangladeshi-Canadian hopes for peace and justice | CBC News

Amid massive unrest in Bangladesh, some members of Windsor’s Bangladeshi community are standing in solidarity with student protesters in their home country and hoping an end to the violence comes soon.

Violent clashes between student protesters, security officials and pro-government student activists have gripped Bangladesh this week. Protesters are demanding their government abolish a quota system that reserves up to 30 per cent of government jobs for families of those who fought for Bangladesh’s freedom in the country’s 1971 war with Pakistan.

Protesters say the quota is discriminatory and benefits supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party, which led the independence movement.

“It is against humanity. It’s a crime,” Saiful Bhuiyan, the adviser and director of the Bangladesh-Canada Students’ Society of Windsor (BCSSW), told CBC Radio’s Afternoon Drive.

Six people were killed in Bangladesh on Wednesday and 19 more were killed on Thursday, according to media reports.

Bhuiyan has siblings, nieces and nephews who still live in Bangladesh. He says he and other members of the Bangladeshi community in Canada are concerned as they watch the situation play out from afar.

“Day by day we are frustrated because our brother[s], sister[s] and other people back home, they are now in [a] real crisis situation,” said Bhuiyan. “A lot of places are burning.”

The BCSSW is holding a peaceful protest at the University of Windsor on Thursday night to show their support for fellow students in Bangladesh and raise awareness about the violence there.

“We [want] to put our solidarity and our worry all over the world,” said Bhuiyan. “We cannot tolerate this type of killing.”

Similar protests have taken place internationally in countries like the U.S., according to Bhuiyan. He says he hopes that by adding their voices, protesters here might be able to encourage Canada’s government to pressure the Bangladeshi government to listen to the student protesters.

Thursday’s protests in Bangladesh

Protest sought to organize “a complete shutdown” of Bangladesh on Thursday, except for essential services. This comes after several major universities in the country agreed to shut their doors indefinitely until tensions ease.

Offices and banks opened Thursday, though many malls did not and traffic on usually jammed roads was thin.

Protesters attacked the head office of state-run Bangladesh Television, breaking through a main gate and setting vehicles and the reception area on fire, a news producer and a reporter told The Associated Press by phone.

The dead on Thursday included a bus driver, a rickshaw-puller and three students according to Reuters.

“Now they’re killing more and more. They are innocent people they are killing,” said Bhuiyan.

Bangladeshi protesters and counter-protesters clash on the streets

Armed activists of Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League, along with its associated student wings, took to the streets nationwide on Tuesday to counter protesters demanding the removal of the quota system in government jobs.

What is Bangladesh’s quota system?

Given Bangladeshi independence was reached over 50 years ago, Bhuiyan says it’s mostly grandchildren of the freedom fighters who benefit from the quota system.

Bangladesh’s prime minister has defended the quota system, saying veterans deserve the highest respect for their contributions to the country’s independence.

Government jobs in Bangladesh are seen as the most stable and lucrative — but there are not enough of them to go around. Each year, some 400,000 graduates compete for around 3,000 jobs in the civil service exam.

The quota was repealed in 2018 but that ruling was nullified last month after relatives of the 1971 veterans filed petitions, sparking the latest round of protests.

The Supreme Court suspended the decision and will rule on the quota in August.

Jobs are also reserved for women, disabled people and members of ethnic minorities under the quota system, but students are primarily protesting against the reservations for veterans’ families.

What might happen next?

On Wednesday night, the prime minister, Hasina, encouraged her country to wait for the Supreme Court’s verdict.

“I am requesting all to wait with patience until the verdict is delivered,” Hasina said in a televised address. “I believe our students will get justice from the apex court. They will not be disappointed.”

Bhuiyan says that doesn’t give him hope, however, because the “autocratic” government controls what judges are on the Supreme Court.