Hundreds of university students in Bangladesh erupted in fury on Monday against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after she equated those who wanted to end quotas for independence heroes’ families with Pakistan army collaborators during the independence war.

Monday’s were the first major protests in 15 years faced by the administration of Hasina who returned to power for a fourth consecutive term following the January elections when the opposition boycotted the polls, reports Eurasia Review.

Nearly 300 students were injured around the country as a result of clashes between anti- and pro-quota groups, with the latter backing Hasina’s ruling Awami League. Battles between the two sides involved clashers throwing stones and using sticks and heavy metal rods to beat others.

Anti-quota protests began last week after the High Court in June reinstated the 30% civil service job quotas that had ended in 2018 for those who fought in the 1971 war. Protesters believe the quotas benefit only those who support Hasina and her party.

And Hasina’s comments Sunday to reporters about the protests were akin to throwing oil on fire, leading protesters to shout slogans such as ‘autocrat!’ against her.

“If the grandchildren of the freedom fighters don’t get quota benefits, should the grandchildren of Razakars get the benefit?” she said at an unrelated news conference. Those who collaborated with the Pakistan Army in 1971 are called “Razakars.”

On Monday, Hasina again criticized the protesters who mockingly called themselves Razakars. “They [protestors] do not know how the Pakistani invasion forces and the Razakar have carried out killings in the country,” she said at an event in Dhaka.

“They have not seen the torture, bodies lying on the streets. So they do not feel ashamed to call themselves Razakar.” But students agitating against quotas say that meritorious people are left out of a system that blocks more than half of the civil service jobs.

In addition to the quotas for the independence war heroes’ families, 10 percent of civil service jobs are reserved for districts,  5 percent for minority ethnic groups and 1 percent for the differently abled.

Angered by Hasina’s comments, hundreds of private university students on Monday joined the protests. In Dhaka, students from Dhaka University, Jagannath University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) were part of the protests.

Elsewhere, students from Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Islamic University and Kusthia protested around the country.

Among the injured, about 250 were from Dhaka University alone, and they were victims of attacks by students from the Bangladesh Student League, which is affiliated with the Awami League, alleged Asif Mahmud, a coordinator with the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, a quota reform group.

He further alleged that BSL students entered the emergency department of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital armed with batons and threatened the injured students who had been taken there for treatment.

The hospital, the country’s largest, had to suspend emergency services as panic spread among doctors, nurses and patients, Brig. Gen. Md. Asaduzzaman, director of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told BenarNews.

“To control the situation, we have deployed more nurses and doctors in the emergency department,” he said.

Nahid Islam, another coordinator of the quota reform movement, urged Hasina to apologize to the students for her comments and added that they would continue their protests. 

“The movement should go on [to become] a larger mass movement. People from all walks of society participate in student marches and gatherings,” he said at a news conference.

However, BCL, the Awami League’s student body, and Awami League representatives took a more threatening tone. BCL President Mazharul Kabir Shayan claimed many from his organization were injured in clashes in the Dhaka University area.

“They have incited our leaders and activists. We gave a very mild response. Today we [merely] kicked them out of the campus in five minutes,” he told reporters.

One Awami League official, General Secretary Obaidul Quader said he did not expect Dhaka university students to “audaciously” ask Hasina to withdraw her remarks. 

“The BCL is ready to respond to the statements made by some anti-quota leaders,” Quader said. The president of BCL, Saddam Hossain, told reporters that “it is clear that the protesters are crossing their limits.” “BCL knows how to deal with those who cross the line politically,” he said.

The country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party condemned what it said were attacks on students protesting the quota.

“The scene witnessed by the countrymen of suppressing the legitimate demands of the students in a bloody manner to stay in power will go down in history as another violent chapter of the Awami League,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP secretary general, in a statement. “The Awami League is now celebrating after shedding the blood of the students.” 

Meanwhile, more than 300 police personnel were deployed late Monday in the Dhaka University area.

Biplab Kumar Sarkar, Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner (Operations), told reporters that police would follow the directions given by university officials.  “We will do whatever the university administration instructs us,” he said.