DHAKA: 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 16 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 the youth, 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.
Ten people died in clashes with police on Thursday in Dhaka - the highest toll in a single day so far - including 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.
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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.
Bangladesh shuts schools, universities after six killed in protests
The U.S. 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.
The Supreme Court will hear on Aug. 7 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.