INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Protesting students in Bangladesh have called for a march to the capital Dhaka in defiance of a nationwide curfew on Monday to press prime
minister Sheikh Hasina to resign, a day after deadly clashes in the South Asian country killed nearly 100 people.The country has been
engulfed by protests and violence that began last month after student groups demanded the scrapping of a controversial quota system in
to Dhaka especially from the surrounding districts
wave of violence across the country, as police fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of protesters.Demonstrators in
Dhaka, surrounded by a tightly packed and cheering crowd, waved a Bangladeshi flag on top of an armoured car as soldiers watched, according
to videos on social media on Sunday verified by Agence France-Presse.In several cases, soldiers and police did not intervene to stem the
reported on 19 July when students took to the streets against the quotas.Starting Sunday evening, a nationwide curfew was imposed, the
starting at 6pm (1200 GMT) on Sunday and also announced a three-day general holiday starting from Monday.The military urged everyone to obey
main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party earlier this year.Demonstrations began over the reintroduction of a quota scheme that reserved
more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.Critics of Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of
using excessive force against protesters, a charge she and her ministers deny.For the second time during the recent protests, the government
has shut down high-speed internet services, mobile operators said
Social media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp were not available, even via broadband connections.In July, at least 150 people were killed and
thousands injured in violence after student groups began protesting.The protests paused after the supreme court scrapped most quotas, but
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
