INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
network seeking to calm escalating clashes that had killed at least 39 people.Hundreds of protesters demanding reform of civil service
Another official from the station later told AFP they had safely evacuated the building.The government of Hasina, 76, has ordered schools
and universities to close indefinitely as police step up efforts to bring a deteriorating law and order situation under control.The premier
punished regardless of their political affiliation
But violence worsened on the streets despite her appeal for calm as police again attempted to break up demonstrations with rubber bullets
and teargas volleys.At least 32 people were killed on Thursday in addition to seven killed earlier in the week, according to a tally of
casualty figures from hospitals compiled by AFP
Hundreds more people were wounded
an official at Uttara Crescent hospital in Dhaka, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal
the official said, adding that many of those people had rubber bullet wounds.Didar Malekin, of the online news outlet Dhaka Times, said one
of his reporters, Mehedi Hasan, had been killed while covering clashes in Dhaka.There was violence in several cities across Bangladesh
throughout the day as riot police marched on protesters, who had begun another round of human blockades on roads and highways.Helicopters
Thursday, the elite Rapid Action Battalion police force said.Almost every day this month, people on marches have demanded an end to the
quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the 1971
liberation war against Pakistan.Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, who has ruled the
She won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition
Her administration is accused by rights groups of capturing state institutions and stamping out dissent, including by the extrajudicial
killing of opposition activists.Mubashar Hasan, a Bangladesh expert at the University of Oslo, said the protests had grown into a wider
telecommunications were disrupted on Friday as well, with Telephone calls from overseas mostly not getting connected and calls through the
internet unable to be be completed
Websites of several Bangladesh-based newspapers were also not updating on Friday morning and their social media handles were not active.The
telecommunications minister, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, said the government had ordered the network to be cut off
other on the streets with bricks and bamboo rods.With Agence France-Presse in Dhaka and Reuters news agency
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
