Members of the Bangladesh community stage a protest at the Atkins Kroll intersection in San Jose on Sunday.
Bangladesh community members gather at Atkins Kroll intersection in San Jose to protest the killing of innocent students in their home country.
MORE than 100 Bangladeshis residing in the CNMI staged a protest at the Atkins Kroll intersection in San Jose on Sunday condemning the killing of students in their country.
They displayed banners with words that read, “Save Bangladesh, Stop Genocide, Step Down Hasina.”
Tareq Jobayere, 36, said they were protesting the deaths of more than 200 students and the thousands who were injured during a peaceful rally in their nation’s capital, Dhaka. They are also demanding that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down.
“The dictator of Bangladesh is killing innocent students,” Jobayere said. “Her government already killed over 200 innocent students and injured thousands of people. We are against genocide and we want Sheik Hasina to step down.”
He said the clamor to reform the government job quota system is behind the violent protests in Bangladesh. Called the “freedom quota,” Jobayere said it is a system under which 30% of government jobs are reserved for the children of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
Jobayere said the “freedom quota” is discriminatory and unfair to the rest of the people in Bangladesh, which has a population of 171 million. The students are calling for an end of the quota “because they believe it’s too much,” he added.
Even the grandchildren of those who fought in the war more than 50 years ago are given 30% of all government jobs, he said, adding, “It is really unfair.”
He said in the aftermath of the mass killing of students, Bangladesh is “in a blackout — no internet.”
Tareq Jobayere carries his daughter as he poses with two other protesters.
