Agencies
Dhaka
At least 91 people have been killed, including 13 police officers, and dozens more injured in a new round of violence in Bangladesh as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse tens of thousands of protesters who returned to the streets to ask Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
The deaths were reported by the police and doctors on Sunday in the capital Dhaka and the northern districts of Bogura, Pabna and Rangpur, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.
The clashes came a day after protesters called for nationwide "civil disobedience” to demand the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. "The curfew will remain effective until further direction from 6pm (1200 GMT) at all cities, divisional and district headquarters, municipal areas, industrial zones and towns across Bangladesh,” an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs said.
The government first imposed a curfew on July 19, as student-led protests against government job quotas turned deadly. A government crackdown quelled the violence and the curfew had been relaxed in recent days. But the eruption of unrest at the weekend led to the new curfew order on Sunday, as well as the declaration of a three-day public holiday from Monday.
The Daily Star newspaper reported at least 57 people were killed in clashes across the country among anti-government protesters, police and supporters of Hasina’s Awami League party. Another newspaper, the Prothom Alo, put the death toll at 70. The figures could not be independently verified. The dailies reported that numerous others were injured.
Dhaka’s police headquarter said in a press statement that a "terrorist attack” was carried out on the Enayetpur Police Station, leaving 13 officers dead. In the eastern Narsingdhi district near Dhaka, six senior members of the ruling Awami League party were beaten to death in a clash near the Madhavadhi Municipal Building, said police officer Shahidul Islam Shohag.
The government had given in to the students’ demands to reform an unpopular job quota system, after the protests in mid-July left more than 200 people dead.