B'desh PM calls emergency meet with varsity heads amid anti-quota protests

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called an emergency meeting with university vice chancellors and college principals on Saturday night amid heightened tensions as student movement leaders refused here invitation for talks and demanded her resignation, days after over 200 people died in anti-quota protests.

Bangladesh recently witnessed violent clashes between the police and mostly student protesters demanding an end to a controversial quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh's War of Independence in 1971.

The prime minister held a "view-exchange meeting with the vice-chancellors of public and private universities, senior teachers and college principals at Ganobhaban (PM's official residence), a PMO spokesman said.

Without giving any detail, he said the meeting discussed the overall situation created over the students' campaign and the way out to overcome it, while the teachers vowed to work in unison to save