5 killed and dozens injured in Bangladesh in violent clashes over government jobs quota scheme

DHAKA, Banglades (AP) — At least 5 people were killed and dozens injured in two separate incidents in Bangladesh as violence continued Tuesday on university campuses in the nation's capital and elsewhere over a government jobs quota scheme local media reports said quoting officials.

At least three of the dead were students and one was a pedestrian, the media reports said. Another man who died in Dhaka remained unidentified.

The deaths were reported Tuesday after an overnight violence at a public university near Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. The violence involved members of a pro-government student body and other students, when police fired tear gas and charged the protesters with batons during the clashes which spread at Jahangir Nagar University in Savar, outside Dhaka, according to students and authorities.

Protesters have been demanding an end to a quota reserved for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971, which allows them to take up 30% of governmental jobs.

They argue that quota appointments are discriminatory and should be merit-based. Some even said the current system benefits groups supporting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Some Cabinet ministers criticized the protesters, saying they played on students’ emotions.

Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily reported that one person died in Dhaka and three others, including a pedestrian, were killed after they suffered injuries during violence in Chattogram, a southeastern district, on Tuesday.

Prothom Alo and other media reports also said that a 22-year-old protester died in the northern district of Rangpur.

Details of the casualties could not be confirmed immediately.

While job opportunities have expanded in Bangladesh’s private sector, many find government jobs stable and lucrative. Each year, some 3,000 such jobs open up to nearly 400,000 graduates.

Hasina said Tuesday that war veterans — commonly known as “freedom fighters” — should receive the highest respect for their sacrifice in 1971 regardless of their current political ideologies.

“Abandoning the dream of their own life, leaving behind their families, parents and everything, they joined the war with whatever they had...,” she said during an event at her office in Dhaka.

Protesters gathered in front of the university’s official residence of the vice-chancellor early Tuesday when violence broke out. Demonstrators accused the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of Hasina’s ruling Awami League party, of attacking their “peaceful protests.” According to local media reports, police and the ruling party-backed student wing attacked the protesters.

But Abdullahil Kafi, a senior police official, told the country’s leading English-language newspaper Daily Star that they fired tear gas and “blank rounds” as protesters attacked the police. He said up to 15 police officers were injured.

More than 50 people were treated at Enam Medical College Hospital near Jahangir Nagar University as the violence continued for hours, said Ali Bin Solaiman, a medical officer of the hospital. He said at least 30 of them suffered pellet wounds.

On Monday, violence also spread at Dhaka University, the country’s leading public university, as clashes gripped the campus in the capital. More than 100 students were injured in the clashes, police said.

On Tuesday, protesters blocked railways and some highways across the country, and in Dhaka, they halted traffic in many areas as they vowed to continue demonstrating until the demands were met.

Local media said police forces were spread across the capital to safeguard the peace.

Swapon, a protester and student of Dhaka University who only gave his first name, said they only want the “rational reformation of the quota scheme.” He said after studying for six years, if he can't find a job, “it will cause me and my family to suffer.”

Protesters say they are apolitical, but leaders of the ruling parties accused the opposition of using the demonstrations for political gains.

A ruling party-backed student activist, who refused to give his name, told The Associated Press that the protesters with the help of “goons” of the opposition's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami party vandalized their rooms at the student dormitories near the Curzon Hall of the Dhaka University.

The family of the veterans’ quota scheme was halted following a court order after mass student protests in 2018. But last month, Bangladesh’s High Court nulled the decision to reinstate the scheme once more, angering scores of students and triggering protests.

Last week, the Supreme Court suspended the High Court’s order for four weeks and the chief justice asked protesting students to return to their classes, saying the court would issue a decision in four weeks.

However, the protests have continued daily, halting traffic in Dhaka.

The quota scheme also reserves government jobs for women, disabled people and ethnic minority groups, but students have only protested against jobs reserved for veterans' families.

Prime Minister Hasina maintained power in an election in January that was again boycotted by the country’s main opposition party and its allies due to Hasina’s refusal to step down and hand over power to a caretaker government to oversee the election.

Her party favors keeping the quota for the families of the 1971 war heroes after her Awami League party, under the leadership of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the independence war with the help of India. Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975.

In 1971, the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which shared power with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Hasina’s archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in 2001-2006, openly opposed the independence war and formed groups that helped the Pakistani military fight pro-independence forces. All the major political parties in Bangladesh have active student wings across the South Asian nation.

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Associated Press video journalist AL Emrun Garjon contributed to the report.

A student hides beneath a vechicle as students clash over quota system at Jahangir Nagar University at Savar outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, July 15, 2024. Police have fired tear gas and charged with batons overnight during violent clashes between a pro-government student body and student protesters, leaving dozens injured at a leading public university outside Bangladesh's capital over quota system in government jobs, police and students said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Abdul Goni)

Students clash over quota system at Jahangir Nagar University at Savar outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, July 15, 2024. Police have fired tear gas and charged with batons overnight during violent clashes between a pro-government student body and student protesters, leaving dozens injured at a leading public university outside Bangladesh's capital over quota system in government jobs, police and students said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Abdul Goni)

Students clash over quota system at Jahangir Nagar University at Savar outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, July 15, 2024. Police have fired tear gas and charged with batons overnight during violent clashes between a pro-government student body and student protesters, leaving dozens injured at a leading public university outside Bangladesh's capital over quota system in government jobs, police and students said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Abdul Goni)

Students clash over quota system at Jahangir Nagar University at Savar outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, July 15, 2024. Police have fired tear gas and charged with batons overnight during violent clashes between a pro-government student body and student protesters, leaving dozens injured at a leading public university outside Bangladesh's capital over quota system in government jobs, police and students said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Abdul Goni)

LEXINGTON, S.C. (AP) — Alex Murdaugh was back in court Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing silently at a pretrial hearing that was mostly short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.

Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. On Monday, a new judge laid out a timeline for hearings and set the retrial to start April 5. She also nailed down deadlines for making sure the defense and prosecution have exchanged evidence, a process called discovery.

Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies and local TV stations to podcasters, were inside the 200-person Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once-rich and imposing Southern lawyer.

“I see we have a full house,” Judge Debra McCaslin said as the hearing began.

For many, it was a rare glimpse of how life in state prison has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh. After pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family’s law firm, he is serving a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence.

Unlike just about everyone else in the courtroom, the judge said she was new to the story, which combines a grisly double murder with the fall of a powerful legal dynasty.

“I don’t know anything about the first trial, so when you tell me something, please be complete,” McCaslin told the lawyers.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and younger son Paul, age 22, because he believed sympathy over their deaths would buy him time to fix his financial crimes. At that point in 2021, he was close to being exposed by both his law firm and the family of a teen who filed a wrongful death suit after Paul crashed a boat while drinking.

A jury convicted Murdaugh of two counts of murder in 2023. While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, bad lawyer and longtime opioid addict, he has adamantly denied the killings.

Murdaugh wore an orange prison jumpsuit Monday, listening with his mouth set in a tight line.

At one point, as defense attorney Dick Harpootlian was asking the judge to let Murdaugh wear civilian clothes in court, he told his client to stand.

“Chains around the hands, chain around the waist, chains on his feet,” Harpootlian noted, saying a jury would see Murdaugh shackled like a dangerous criminal when he’s only been convicted of financial crimes.

Prosecutor Creighton Waters said it's important for incarcerated defendants to wear restraints and jumpsuits. “Every time someone is transferred out of court, it is a security risk,” he said.

Defense lawyers want Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, to have access in prison to a laptop without internet, so his team wouldn't have to print and deliver evidence to him. Harpootlian said Monday there are more than 20,000 pages of documents.

“Well surely, Mr. Harpootlian, he reviewed those before his first trial, did he not?” the judge asked.

“Five years ago,” the lawyer replied.

Another pretrial motion asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. Investigators said it was from an unknown and unrelated man. The defense said they would cover the cost of testing.

“I’m gonna let you pay for it,” the judge quipped, drawing a chuckle from the courtroom.

Murdaugh was grimacing and biting his lower lip during the exchange.

The defense also wants to hold the next trial outside Colleton County, where the killings happened and the first trial took place. That matter was not decided Monday.

Investigators and armchair detectives alike have spent hours poring over alibis, timelines and digital breadcrumbs, including a cellphone video that prosecutors say cracked the case. They allege Murdaugh’s voice can be heard on the video, which was taken by his son shortly before the shootings at dog kennels on the family’s sprawling property. Murdaugh had initially claimed he was asleep at the time.

During the first trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, who is assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.

The state Supreme Court ruled this was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty, and overturned his convictions.

The justices were also concerned there had been too much testimony around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.

Alex Murdaugh arrives for a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)

State Judge Debra McCaslin oversees a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)

Alex Murdaugh arrives for a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)

Alex Murdaugh attends a judicial hearing on Monday, June 29, 2026, at the Marc H. Westbrook Judicial Center in Lexington, S.C. (Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)

Reverend Raymond Johnson protests outside the Lexington County Courthouse before the arrival of Alex Murdaugh in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)

Dick Harpootlian, a defense attorney for Alex Murdaugh, arrives at the Lexington County Courthouse in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)

Visitors wait in line outside the Lexington County Courthouse before a pre-trial hearing for Alex Murdaugh in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)

A vehicle believed to be transporting Alex Murdaugh arrives at the Lexington County Courthouse in Lexington, S.C., Monday, June 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Wolfe)

FILE - Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center, in Columbia, S.C. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post and Courier via AP, Pool, File)