University students blocked a road in Dhaka in one of several protests and sit-ins across Bangladesh involving thousands of students yesterday, after clashes at the country's top university left at least 100 people injured.

Organisers in Dhaka said they were holding peaceful protests when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at Dhaka University students fighting what they consider discriminatory government job quotas in favour of special groups. Police said protesters threw rocks, vandalised the home of the Dhaka University vice-chancellor, torched two cars and ransacked the Fine Arts Institute. The students are angry at the government's decision to set aside 56 per cent 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 per cent of the jobs.