Thousands of students armed with sticks and rocks clashed with armed police in Dhaka on Thursday as the Bangladesh authorities cut some mobile internet services to quell anti-quota protests that have killed at least 12 people this week.
The nationwide protests are the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected to a fourth term in office, and are fuelled by high unemployment among the youth, with nearly a fifth of the 170 million population out of work or education.
Six people died in clashes with police in Dhaka on Thursday, including a bus driver whose body was brought to a hospital with a bullet wound to his chest, and a student, officials told Reuters. Hundreds more were injured, they said.
Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government was willing to talk to the protesters, who want the state to stop setting aside 30% of government jobs for the families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence, has so far rejected the protesters’ demands.
“We are willing to sit (and talk with them). Whenever they want to sit in the discussion, it will happen,” Huq said.
Earlier, police fired tear gas to scatter protesters near a Dhaka university campus and authorities cut some mobile internet services in a bid 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 said it would close on Thursday and advised its citizens to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. The Indian embassy also 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.
On August 7, the Supreme Court is due hear the government’s appeal against a High Court verdict that ordered the reinstatement of the quota. Hasina has asked the students to be patient until the verdict.
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.