Bangladesh student protests over jobs escalate, telecoms disrupted
Al Jazeera
Death toll expected to rise amid violence that has seen government buildings torched and telecommunications disrupted.
Dozens of people have been killed in Bangladesh as nationwide student protests over the allocation of civil service jobs took an increasingly violent turn.
On Friday student demonstrators continued to clash with police and pro-government activists after days of protests, with government buildings torched and telecommunications severely disrupted.
“Everything remains very volatile, intense, and it’s very critical right now,” said Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the capital, Dhaka.
“Just a quarter mile from where I am, there are about six universities, which were demonstrating since morning, and we can still hear gunfire, stun grenades and all sorts of noises coming from that area because the students refused to leave.”
The death toll from Thursday’s violence had risen to 32, the AFP news agency reported on Friday. That number could not be immediately verified.