Violent clashes between college students and police continued, with protesters setting fireplace to the headquarters of Bangladesh’s nationwide broadcaster, authorities mentioned.
A publish on BTV’s official Fb web page warned that “many individuals” had been trapped contained in the constructing in Dhaka and known as on the hearth service to assist put out the blaze.
Bangladesh’s info minister instructed the BBC that broadcasts had been stopped and most workers had left the capital constructing.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared on-line the night time earlier than to enchantment for calm after days of violent protests that left no less than 17 folks lifeless, probably extra, and tons of injured.
College students have been holding rallies demanding adjustments to a system that reserves one-third of public sector jobs for kinfolk of veterans of Pakistan’s 1971 warfare of independence.
College students imagine that the system is discriminatory and demand merit-based recruitment.
The federal government has been making an attempt to quell the protests, shutting down the nation’s cellular web on Thursday in an try and decelerate college students.
In response to AFP, this present day turned out to be the deadliest day to this point. A complete of 32 folks died in the course of the protests, most of them on Thursday, in response to hospital statistics.
BBC Bengali has thus far confirmed the deaths of 17 folks, together with a 32-year-old Dhaka Instances reporter.
Sheikh Hasina denounced the protesters’ deaths as “homicide” in a tv look on Wednesday, however her feedback had been largely dismissed by protest organizers.
On Thursday, police used tear fuel and rubber bullets as college students fashioned human partitions within the streets.
College students who stormed Beijing TV earlier “burned down” a police station, in response to a Beijing TV official.
“The police chased them as they took refuge on the BTV workplaces,” the official instructed AFP. “The indignant protesters then precipitated chaos right here.”
Bangladesh Info Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat instructed the BBC that workers nonetheless contained in the constructing “really feel very unsafe”.
“them [protesters] Go in and destroy,” he mentioned.
“The safety forces are all in place, however… they’re bodily current and they don’t seem to be making an attempt to mount any counterattack.
“However they’ll do it now, they’ll warn everybody, after which they’ll clear it up.”
