Soldiers were out in force Saturday in cities around Bangladesh after another day of lethal clashes between student protesters and police prompted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to cancel a foreign diplomatic tour.
This week’s violence has killed at least 115 people so far, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, and poses a monumental challenge to Hasina’s autocratic government after 15 years in office.
A government curfew went into effect at midnight and the premier’s office asked the military to deploy troops after police again failed to subdue widespread mayhem.
“The army has been deployed nationwide to control the law and order situation,” armed forces spokesman Shahdat Hossain told AFP.
The curfew will remain in effect until at least 10:00 am (0400 GMT) Sunday, private broadcaster Channel 24 reported.
“Hundreds of thousands of people” had battled police across the capital Dhaka on Friday, police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.
“At least 150 police officers were admitted to hospital. Another 150 were given first aid treatment,” he said, adding that two officers had been beaten to death.
“The protesters torched many police booths… Many government offices were torched and vandalized.”
Streets of the capital Dhaka were almost deserted at daybreak, with troops on foot and in armored personnel carriers patrolling the sprawling megacity of 20 million.
Hundreds of protesters defied the stay-home order in the residential neighbourhood of Rampur but were quickly dispersed by police firing rubber bullets, an AFP journalist at the scene reported.
A spokesman for Students Against Discrimination, the main organising group of the protests, told AFP that two of its leaders had been arrested since Friday.
