Bangladesh student protests over jobs escalate, telecoms disrupted

Death toll expected to rise amid violence that has seen government buildings torched and telecommunications disrupted.

Dozens of people have been killed in Bangladesh as nationwide student protests over the allocation of civil service jobs took an increasingly violent turn.

On Friday student demonstrators continued to clash with police and pro-government activists after days of protests, with government buildings torched and telecommunications severely disrupted.

“Everything remains very volatile, intense, and it’s very critical right now,” said Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the capital, Dhaka.

“Just a quarter mile from where I am, there are about six universities, which were demonstrating since morning, and we can still hear gunfire, stun grenades and all sorts of noises coming from that area because the students refused to leave.”

The death toll from Thursday’s violence had risen to 32, the AFP news agency reported on Friday. That number could not be immediately verified.

Al Jazeera had previously reported that at least 19 protesters were killed by Thursday night, with the majority in the capital, Dhaka. Others were killed in protests in nearby Narayanganj and the eastern city of Chittagong.

The death toll could rise with reports of clashes in nearly half of the country’s 64 districts. More than 1,000 people have been injured.

A police statement issued after a near-total shutdown of the nation’s internet – imposed by the government on Thursday – said protesters had torched, vandalised and carried out “destructive activities” on numerous police and government offices.

Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which remains offline after hundreds of students