Protesters set hearth to the headquarters of Bangladesh’s state broadcaster on Thursday as violent clashes between college students and police continued, authorities stated.
The nation is reportedly in a state of near-total web outage.
A publish on BTV’s official Fb web page warned that “many individuals” have been trapped contained in the constructing in Dhaka and referred to as on the fireplace service to assist put out the blaze.
Bangladesh’s data minister advised the BBC that broadcasts had been stopped and most workers had left the capital constructing.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared on-line the evening earlier than to enchantment for calm after days of violent protests that left at the least 17 individuals useless, probably extra, and a whole lot 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 cell web on Thursday in an try and decelerate college students.
Based on AFP, this present day turned out to be the deadliest day up to now. A complete of 32 individuals died through the protests, most of them on Thursday, in line with hospital statistics.
The BBC Bengali service has to this point confirmed the deaths of 17 individuals, 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 have been largely dismissed by protest organizers.
On Thursday, police used tear gasoline and rubber bullets as college students shaped human partitions within the streets.
College students who stormed Beijing TV earlier “burned down” a police station, in line with a Beijing TV official.
“The police chased them as they took refuge on the BTV places of work,” the official advised AFP. “The offended protesters then brought about chaos right here.”
Bangladesh Data Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat advised the BBC that staff nonetheless contained in the constructing “really feel very unsafe”.
“them [protesters] Go in and destroy,” he stated.
“The safety forces are all in place, however… they’re bodily current and they aren’t making an attempt to launch any counterattack.
“However they will do it now, they will warn everybody, after which they will clear it up.”
