Thousands of students armed with sticks and stones clashed with armed police in Dhaka on Thursday as Bangladesh authorities cut off some mobile internet services to quell anti-quota protests that have killed at least 16 people this week.
The nationwide unrest, the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected for a fourth term, is being fueled by high youth unemployment, with nearly a fifth of the population of 170 million without work or education.
The protesters are demanding that the state stop reserving 30 percent of government jobs for the families of those who fought in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.
Ten people died in clashes with police in Dhaka on Thursday – the highest single-day death toll so far – including a bus driver whose body was taken to hospital with a bullet wound to the chest and three students, officials told Reuters.
According to witnesses, hundreds of others were injured when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who set fire to vehicles, police stations and other establishments.
Justice Minister Anisul Huq said the government was willing to talk to the protesters, but they refused, saying “discussions and shootings do not go together.”
“We cannot step over the dead bodies to discuss. Discussions could have taken place earlier,” protest coordinator Nahid Islam told Reuters.
Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence, has so far rejected the protesters’ demands.
Source: Terra
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