DHAKA - Bangladesh's top court on Sunday pared back but fell short of public demands to abolish, contentious civil service hiring rules that sparked nationwide clashes between police and university students that have killed 151 people.
What began as a protest against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed this week into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.
Soldiers are patrolling cities across Bangladesh after riot police failed to restore order, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information to the outside world.
The Supreme Court was due to decide next month on the legality of the recently reintroduced scheme that reserves more than half of government jobs for select applicants, but brought forward its verdict as the civil strife intensified.
It decided that a lower bench's order last month to reintroduce the scheme was "illegal", Bangladeshi Attorney General A.M. Amin Uddin told AFP.
Shah Monjurul Hoque, a lawyer involved in the case, told AFP that the court had also asked protesting students "to return to class" after issuing its verdict.
The ruling curtailed the number of reserved jobs, from 56 percent of all positions to seven percent, but fell short of meeting protester demands.
It reserved five percent of all government jobs for the children of "freedom fighters" from Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, down from 30 percent.
One percent were reserved for tribal communities, and another one percent for people with disabilities or identifying as third gender under Bangladeshi law.
The remaining 93 percent of positions would be decided on merit, the court ruled.
The "freedom fighter" category in particular is a point of resentment for young graduates, with critics saying it is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's ruling Awami League.
Students had called for the complete abolition of that category, along with other quotas for women and specific districts of the country.