Bangladesh court winds back job quotas that sparked unrest

DHAKA: Bangladesh's top court on Sunday pared back, but fell short of public demands to abolish, contentious civil service hiring rules that sparked nationwide clashes between police and university students that have killed 151 people.

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 due to decide next month on the legality of the recently reintroduced scheme that reserves more than half of government jobs for select applicants, but brought forward its verdict as the civil strife intensified.

It decided that a lower bench's order last month to reintroduce the scheme was "illegal", Bangladeshi Attorney General A.M. Amin Uddin told AFP.

By RSS/AP