As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female students launched into pitched battles with police.

Thousands of students across Bangladesh staged protests and sit-ins Monday after clashes at the country’s top university left at least 100 people injured.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at Dhaka University students fighting what they consider “discriminatory” government job quotas in favour of special groups.
It was one of the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

A minister was due to meet protest leaders in Dhaka on Monday.

But students at state-run universities in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, Rangpur, Sylhet and Savar boycotted classes and staged sit-ins, police and media said.

“More than 1,000 students joined the demonstrations at Jahangirnagar University,” said Ataur Rahman, a protester in Savar where the university is located.

The clashes, which began Sunday night and went into the early hours of Monday, turned Dhaka University into a battleground.

Copycat protests soon started in other major cities as thousands of students boycotted classes and staged sit-ins.

Organisers in Dhaka said they were holding peaceful protests when police started firing tear gas and rubber bullets. They used batons and water cannon to clear a central square.

As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female students launched into pitched battles with police.

“More than 100 people were injured,” police inspector Bacchu Mia said, adding they were treated in hospital but their condition was not serious.

Protesters threw rocks, vandalised the home of the Dhaka University vice-chancellor, torched two cars and ransacked the fine arts institute, said senior police officer Azimul Haque.

Fifteen people were detained, police said.

The students are angry at the government’s decision to set aside 56 percent of civil service jobs for the families of veterans from the 1971 war of independence and for disadvantaged minorities. That leaves most university graduates to fight for only 44 percent of the jobs.

Hasan Al Mamun, a leader of the protests, said tens of thousands of students joined the demonstrations nationwide. Police declined to estimate the number.

Al Mamun said the quota for top-grade jobs should be reduced to only 10 percent.

“These quotas are discriminatory. Due to the quota system, 56 percent of the jobs are set aside for five percent of the country’s population. And 95 percent of the people can compete for the 44 percent,” he said.

Students are particularly upset at the 30 percent quota set aside for descendants of veterans of the independence war.

Sheikh Hasina, whose father was the architect of the country’s independence from Pakistan, has rejected demands to slash the quotas.

An airbase in Syria’s Homs province was hit by “several missiles” in a “likely attack by the US” on Monday, according to state media reports.
The Tayfur airbase, also known as T4, is located in a strategic position between the cities of Homs and Palmyra, reports CNN.

Citing a military source, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said the attack had caused an unspecified number of deaths and injuries.

It said the airfield was targeted with several missiles. The Syrian air defence had responded and shot down eight incoming missiles, the agency added.

Video footage on social media in Lebanon showed aircraft or missiles flying low over the country, apparently heading east towards Syria.

However, the Pentagon has denied the Syrian claims of the airbase attack that comes hours after President Donald Trump tweeted “Animal Assad” would have a “big price to pay” for an alleged chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma.

“At this time, the Department of Defence is not conducting air strikes in Syria. However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” a Pentagon statement said early Monday.

On Sunday, Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” after the alleged chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held city of Douma, which the US blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a series of tweets, Trump also slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tehran, saying “Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad”.

It was not clear what retaliatory action Trump has in mind, but the issue is expected to be discussed at a “small group” meeting of the National Security Council on Monday, led by John Bolton on his first day as White House National Security Adviser, administration officials told CNN.

Last April, the US launched Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase after Washington and others accused Assad’s forces of perpetrating a deadly chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun that killed 80 people, which the Syrian military denied.

In Saturday’s attack, toxic gas inside barrel bombs were dropped from helicopters over Douma that killed over 40 civilians.

Images showed people, including children, apparently dead and injured with some kind of spittle or foam in their mouths in makeshift medical centres.

The authenticity of the images could not be immediately confirmed.