More than four weeks have passed since protests against the government’s job quota system began. Students and youth across the country are protesting what they see as unfair policies that favor a particular group: the children of “freedom fighters” during Bangladesh’s war of independence. But after the government unleashed unprecedented violence, the protests have gone beyond the demand for cancellation of the quota system.
A list of student demands has been circulated in an underground press release.
1) The prime minister must accept responsibility for the mass killings of students and publicly apologize.
2) The home minister and the road, transport, and bridges minister [the latter is also the secretary general of the Awami League], must resign from their [cabinet] positions and the party.
3) Police officers present at the sites where students were killed must be sacked.
4) Vice Chancellors of Dhaka, Jahangirnagar, and Rajshahi universities must resign.
5) The police and goons who attacked the students and those who instigated the attacks must be arrested.
6) Families of the killed and injured must be compensated.
7) Bangladesh Chhatra League [BCL, the pro-government student wing, which is the government’s vigilante force] must be banned from student politics and a student union established.
8) All educational institutions and halls of residence must be reopened.
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