Authorities on alert about Sri Lankan students in Bangladesh amid deadly protests

Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya says that the Bangladesh High Commission in India is on alert about the Sri Lankan students in Bangladesh, amid violent protests.

Meanwhile, around 300 Indian students have returned home from Bangladesh after the student-youth agitation against the announcement of reservation in government jobs gained strength.

Authorities in Bangladesh have imposed a nationwide curfew after this week’s rioting in the capital Dhaka left around 104 dead and nearly 2500 people seriously injured. Police fire was the cause of more than half of the deaths reported so far this week, as per reports.

On Friday, Bangladeshi student protesters stormed a prison and freed hundreds of inmates as police struggled to quell unrest, with huge rallies in the capital Dhaka despite a police ban on public gatherings.

The clashes have also not been confined to Dhaka, with 26 districts reporting incidents.

Against this backdrop, UN human rights chief Volker Turk told AFP news agency that the attacks on student protesters were “shocking and unacceptable”.

Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Her administration this week ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police stepped up efforts to bring the deteriorating law and order situation under control.