At least 30 killed as Bangladesh protesters renew call for Hasina to quit

Protests over a jobs quota system have morphed into a wider antigovernment movement demanding the prime minister’s resignation.

At least 30 people have been killed 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 demonstrators are demanding Hasina’s resignation after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs and escalated into violence that killed 200 people.

Hasina said those who were engaging in the “sabotage” and the destruction in the name of protests were no longer students, but criminals, and said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

Authorities have blocked internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.

Deaths were reported from at least 11 districts including Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.

Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from Dhaka, described the situation as “volatile and dangerous”. “The protesters are saying that they are not going to move, until their government steps down,” he said.

“People are extremely worried what’s going to happen,”