Bangladesh imposes curfew, deploys army as job quota protests continue

Bangladesh has announced the imposition of a curfew and the deployment of military forces after days of clashes at protests against government job quotas across the country.

“The government has decided to impose a curfew and deploy the military in aid of the civilian authorities,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan, told the news agency AFP, adding that the curfew would take immediate effect.

Police in the capital, Dhaka, earlier banned all public gatherings for the day – a first since protests began – to forestall more violence.

However, that did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling city of 20 million people despite an internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.

Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, said the introduction of the curfew, which began at midnight (18:00 GMT on Friday) will only add to the public’s confusion and a sense of unrest in the country.

“People weren’t able to go out the last two days because of the shutdown. Now you have a curfew, and the internet has been completely shut down since early yesterday [Thursday] evening,” he said.

Chowdhury said the government hopes to keep “students and the public off the street” with the curfew because it senses it is losing control of the protests.

He added that the protesters appeared to be in “no mood for compromise” while the government is “increasingly losing control of the situation on the street despite using paramilitary forces and police”.

The student protests erupted after the High Court on June 5 ordered the reinstatement of a 30 percent reservation of government jobs for children of veterans who participated in the country’s liberation movement in 1971.

Violent confrontations broke out on Monday after student protesters were attacked by activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party.

On Thursday, thousands of students clashed with armed police in Dhaka. At least 11 people were killed, including a bus driver and a student, police sources told Al Jazeera.

It was not immediately clear if there were deaths at the protests on Friday. Bangladesh’s Independent Television channel reported 17 more deaths on Friday. Somoy TV reported that 30 people were killed. Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify these numbers.

The government has shut down all public and private universities and sent security forces onto campuses. It said it is willing to meet student leaders.

Demonstrators said they want accountability for the killings before they discuss a possible compromise with the government.