Weeks of escalating student protests over a quota reform for government jobs have spiraled into Bangladesh's worst unrest in living memory with over a hundred deaths in the past few days.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has imposed a nationwide curfew and deployed the military, following clashes between demonstrators and police during student protests.

Most local news outlets have not updated their online editions since Thursday night, after the government largely cut off internet, telephone, and SMS connections. 

After several attempts, DW's Bengali service managed to communicate with its correspondents in Dhaka to get a firsthand experience from the city cut off from other parts of the country and the rest of the world.  

'Risk of casualties'

Correspondent Harun Ur Rashid Swapan said Saturday that protesters who were protesting in several areas of Dhaka on Friday were still holding their positions even after the curfew was announced. 

"Army and security forces took positions in those areas. But the protesters are large in number," he told DW. "So, there is a risk of casualties if security forces try to disperse the protesters."

Samir Kumar Dey, another DW correspondent based in Dhaka, said that the protesters refused to back down even when police opened fire: "The situation has reached a level that the protesters don't back down even when shots are fired. What I have noticed since yesterday is that the involvement of activists of political parties is more visible in the student protests."

The controversial quota system

The student groups are demonstrating against a high court order announced last month to reinstate quotas for government jobs. The quota system had been abolished in 2018 following massive student protests.

Under the quota system, more than half of civil service jobs are reserved for specific groups. For example, 30% of government jobs are reserved for family members of veterans who fought in the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

"Most of the students want to have a government job in Bangladesh. Social security is one of the reasons behind this," Lamia Rahman Supti, a Dhaka University student who has been participating in the protests, told DW.

She said protesters do not see the logic in reserving government jobs for the grandchildren of people who fought in the liberation war more than 50 years ago, commonly called "freedom fighters" in Bangladesh. Other groups, like women and the disabled, are allotted a smaller percentage.

Some 3,000 such government jobs were open to nearly 340,000 graduates last year, according to government data.

Nasiruddin Yousuff Bachchu, a well-known freedom fighter and cultural personality based in Dhaka, also thinks the quota system should be reformed, but he opposes reducing it drastically, which the quota reform protesters demand.

''The quota system should be reduced to 20% from the current 56%," Bachchu told DW. "The 10% quota we have for women should be increased to 15% as we still need to see more women in government jobs. Also, we need to keep quotas for ethnic minorities, persons with physical disabilities, and marginalized communities."

Toughest unrest in decades 

Veteran journalist Harun Ur Rashid Swapan says he hasn't seen such wide and violent unrest for many decades. In his experience, no protests can compare to the scale of the ongoing quota reform protests that have seen many casualties and attacks on government properties. In one case, protesters managed to release prisoners from jail.

"I have seen a mass uprising against Ershad [military dictator in the 1990s]," Swapan told DW. "Considering the current movement's pattern and activities, I think it's a big one. The violence has reached a high level."

Samir Kumar Dey remembers two other protests that took place in the past decades. In 2006, when current Prime Minister Hasina was the opposition leader, her party was able to stage a powerful anti-government protest in Dhaka that led to the fall of the BNP government. And, in 2013, the hardline Islamist group Hefazat e Islam's protest at the center of Dhaka failed after security forces dispersed the protesters. 

"Both protests took place in two specific areas of Dhaka," Dey told DW. "But I haven't seen a wide and violent protest like the current one before."

Dhaka at a standstill 

Both journalists told DW that the streets are largely empty in the capital, apart from the areas where protests are taking place. Many citizens avoid appearing on the main streets while security forces are patrolling the streets.  

"People can't roam outside," Swapan said. "Shops are largely closed. In some places, goods are sold at higher prices. I went to Kawran Bazar, the biggest commodity marketplace in Dhaka, this morning. But sales aren't taking place there."

He pointed out that day-laborers are suffering in particular, as they have been out of work for days due to the protests.

Both correspondents think that while many people support the students' demand for quota reform and believe that the issue could have been solved long before it turned violent, they also see divisions in the population. "One side thinks it's okay to try to topple the government," said Samir Kumar Dey. "However, the other side thinks that the government shouldn't be toppled over such an issue."

Government announces curfew 

Prime Minister Hasina had been due to leave the country on Sunday for a planned diplomatic tour but abandoned her plans after a week of escalating violence. The government curfew went into effect at midnight Friday, and the premier's office asked the military to deploy troops after police again failed to subdue the protests.

Swapan said that some government ministers have been trying to negotiate with the protest organizers to calm the situation.  

"I don't think the movement is limited to quota reform anymore," he told DW. "It has been spread in other directions too. It's difficult to say if the curfew or the current course of action can calm the situation in the coming days now."

Meanwhile, the police have arrested thousands of protesters, including some coordinators of the movement, in the past days. 

Editor: Ben Knight