DHAKA - Thousands of students armed with sticks and rocks clashed with armed police in Dhaka on Thursday as Bangladesh authorities cut some mobile internet services to quell anti-job quota protests that have killed at least 32 people this week.
The nationwide agitation, the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected for a fourth time, is fuelled by high unemployment among young people, with nearly a fifth of the 170 million population out of work or education.
Protesters are demanding the state stop setting aside 30% of government jobs for families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
At least 25 people were killed on Thursday in addition to seven killed earlier in the week, according to a tally of casualty figures from hospitals. The dead on Thursday included a bus driver whose body was brought to a hospital with a bullet wound to his chest, a rickshaw-puller and three students, officials told Reuters.
Hundreds more were injured as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up protesters who torched vehicles, police posts and other establishments, witnesses said.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government was willing to hold talks with the protesters, but they refused, saying “discussions and opening fire do not go hand in hand”.
“We cannot trample over dead bodies to hold discussions. Discussions could have taken place earlier,” protest co-ordinator Nahid Islam told Reuters.
Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led Bangladesh to independence, has so far rejected the demands of the protesters.
Earlier, police fired tear gas to scatter protesters near a Dhaka university campus and authorities cut some mobile internet services to limit the demonstrations.
Police also fired tear gas to disperse stone-throwing students who blocked a highway in the southern port city of Chittagong.
The US Embassy in Dhaka closed on Thursday and advised its citizens to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. The Indian embassy issued a similar advisory.
Authorities had shut all public and private universities indefinitely from Wednesday and sent riot police and the Border Guard paramilitary force to university campuses to keep order.
The Supreme Court on Aug 7 will hear the government’s appeal against a High Court ruling that ordered the reinstatement of the quota. Hasina has asked the students to be patient until the ruling.
Rights groups such as Amnesty International, as well as the United Nations and the United States have urged Bangladesh to protect peaceful protesters from violence.