Bangladesh top court to rule on government job quotas that sparked deadly clashes

What began as a protest against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed this week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

Soldiers are patrolling cities across Bangladesh after riot police failed to restore order, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.

The Supreme Court was meeting later Sunday to issue a verdict on whether to abolish the contentious job quotas.

Hasina, whose opponents accuse her government of bending the judiciary to her will, hinted to the public this week that the scheme would be scrapped.

But after the mounting crackdown and a rising death toll, a favourable verdict is unlikely to mollify white-hot public anger.

“It’s not about the rights of the students any more,” business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, said at the scene of a Saturday street protest, held in the capital Dhaka in defiance of a nationwide curfew.

“Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government.”

The catalyst for this month’s unrest is a 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 families loyal to Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Bangladesh extended the curfew on Sunday as authorities braced for the court hearing. The curfew will continue for an “uncertain time”, local media reported.

Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent,