The 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement was an anti-government[e] and pro-democracy[f] protest in Bangladesh, spearheaded primarily by university students. Initially focused on restructuring discriminatory traditional and quota-based systems for government job recruitment, the movement expanded against what many perceive as an authoritarian government when hundreds of protestors and civilians, most of whom were students, were killed.[g] The majority of the fatalities were caused by gunshots fired by the police and other government forces, using lethal and deadly weapons,[93] against unarmed protestors and non-protesting civilians, including children and pedestrians.[h]