US state dept asked if it’ll label BCL as terrorist group 

The United States has condemned violence against peaceful protests in Bangladesh and urged that the protests be peaceful. 

Mathew Miller, spokesperson for the US state department, came up with the call in response to a question at a regular briefing in Washington on Thursday. 

Referring to the ongoing quota reform movements, a journalist informed the spokesperson that a crackdown on student protests is going on in Bangladesh, and at least six students killed by the state forces.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), a pro-government student, has been brutal towards students, particularly against girls and women, and has been doing so over and over again for the past one and a half decades. 

“Would you consider the Chhatra League as a terrorist organisation?,” he asked. 

In response, Mathew Miller said, “I am not going to speak to that with any specificity, but I will say we continue to monitor the violence that broke out during the student protests in Dhaka and continue to urge that protests be peaceful and continue to condemn any violence against peaceful protests."

Students and job seekers have been demonstrating at educational institutions across the country throughout the last several days, demanding a rational reform in the quota system in government jobs.

The government has been hellbent on settling the issue at the court, while the protesters continued to press for legislating a law in parliament, with a rational quota for the backward communities.

After days of peaceful protests, the ruling party moved its student and youth wings, alongside the law enforcement agencies, to foil the movement, and it led to deadly clashes between the two sides.

On Tuesday, at least six protesters died during clashes between the protesters and the police, Bangladesh Chhatra League, and Bangladesh Awami Jubo League in Chattogram, Rangpur, Dhaka.