Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has imposed nationwide curfew as violent clashes between protesters and security personnel continue to take place. She has called in the military to crush the protests.
According to an AFP count of victims reported by hospitals, and pose a momentous challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government after 15 years in office.
“The government has decided to impose a curfew and deploy the military in aid of the civilian authorities,” Hasina’s press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan told AFP.
Various media reports coming in say death toll is nearing 115 and over 700 people have been injured in this week’s violence that has now spread to most of the country.
The declaration of the curfew and the deployment of the military to support the embattled police and paramilitary personnel was separately confirmed by Hasina’s office and her political party Bangladesh Awami League (BAL).
Protesting students are demanding that the Sheikh Hasina-led government should scrap a controversial job quota system.
Military forces are patrolling capital city and other parts of the country to control the law and order situation.
“The army has been deployed nationwide to control the law and order situation,” armed forces spokesman Shahdat Hossain told AFP.
In Dhaka, police took the unprecedented measure of banning all public gatherings for the day, aiming to prevent further violence amid escalating protests.
