At least 29 dead in daylong mayhem

In an unprecedented scale of violence across the country, at least 29 people, including 11 students and a journalist, were killed and more than 3,000 wounded in fierce clashes between quota protesters and law enforcers joined in by ruling party activists on Thursday.

The 11 students are from Dhaka, Chattogram, Savar, Madaripur, Narsingdi and Sylhet. Many of the victims are yet to be identified, so the number of students killed may rise.

The protests began from where it was left off on Wednesday night, and continued in Dhaka and other parts of the country throughout yesterday.

The violence saw at least two government establishments, including state-run BTV Bhaban in the capital's Rampura, attacked and set alight.

In the afternoon, after many were already killed and injured, the government invited the protesting students to sit for talks, but the students rejected the call and vowed to continue their movement.

"No dialogue will take place over the blood of the martyrs. It is the government that has to find the solution," Nahid Islam, one of the key organisers of the movement, said in a Facebook post in the evening, just hours before the government shut down the internet.

The intensity of violence, and the death toll that climbed to 36 so far are unprecedented in any student movement in recent memory. By the afternoon, parts of Dhaka's skyline turned black with thick smoke coming from burning buildings and cars.

Earlier on Tuesday, six people were killed in Dhaka, Chattogram and Rangpur. Another man who was injured in the previous day's violence died yesterday.

The death toll from yesterday's clashes may go up.

Different private hospitals, especially in Uttara where one of the fiercest clashes took place, struggled to treat the injured patients that rose by the hour.

Violence ensued when law enforcers and ruling party activists carrying firearms, rods, iron pipes, sticks and hockey sticks tried to disperse students enforcing a "complete shutdown" of transport networks, businesses and offices yesterday, demanding quota reforms.

Dhaka was cut off from the rest of the country, as rail and road communications came to a halt.

The protesters also vandalised and set fire to the disaster management office building in the capital's Mohakhali and at least three police outposts in the city.

Parts of Dhaka looked like warzones as law enforcers used shotguns, teargas shells and sound grenades against the protesters, who responded by throwing brick chunks. AL activists and police also hurled bricks at the demonstrators.

Of the dead, 23 were in Dhaka. Of them, 10 were killed in Jatrabari, Shanir Akhra and Azimpur. One of them was a journalist of Dhaka Times. Another nine in Dhaka's Uttara and nearby areas; two in Badda; one each in Dhanmondi and Savar lost their lives in the violence, police and hospital sources confirmed to The Daily Star.

Mizanur Rahman, superintendent of Bangladesh-Kuwait Friendship Hospital in Uttara, told The Daily Star around 11:30pm that eight victims were brought dead at their hospital. Six bodies were handed over to relatives, and the rest two were still at the hospital.

At the Crescent Hospital, also in Uttara, our correspondent saw relatives collect a body around 10:30pm.

At least six people were killed outside the capital -- two each in Chattogram and Narsingdi and one each in Madaripur and Sylhet, police and hospital sources said.

Many of the victims were hit by shotgun pellets, as law enforcers fired indiscriminately.

Violent clashes between the demonstrators and law enforcers and AL activists took place in Dhaka's Uttara, Jatrabari, Badda, Rampura, Dhanmondi, Mirpur and Science Laboratory Intersection.

Our district correspondents reported violence in at least 19 districts.

Along with police, Rab and Ansar members, 229 platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed nationwide.

Many government and private offices were open yesterday in the capital. On the streets, there were very few threewheelers, motorcycles, buses and private vehicles. The metro rail service from Uttara to Motijheel was partially halted.

Agitating students called the shutdown to protest the attacks by police, BGB, Rab and SWAT teams as well as ruling party activists, the deaths of fellow protesters, and also to demand punishment to the culprits, terror-free campuses and a logical reform to the quota system.

Violence erupted on Tuesday when at least six people, including three students, were killed and several hundred injured in clashes as the quota protests swelled after Chhatra League and AL activists attacked them at different universities on Monday.

The students continued their protest on Wednesday though it was a government holiday. They organised funeral and coffin processions and blocked roads and highways at different places. Chases and counter-chases and running battles took place in different parts of the country, including the capital.

The authorities have since closed all public and private universities, colleges and primary and secondary schools. They also asked university students to leave their halls by Wednesday, and dispatched riot police and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh members to the campuses.

In a press release last night, the home ministry issued a stern warning against violence.

"Law enforcers have been showing extreme patience so far. But if the miscreants continue to engage in destructive activities, law enforcement will be compelled to use the full force of the law to protect people's lives and public properties," said the release, signed by the senior public relations officer of the ministry.

UTTARA

In Uttara, at least nine people were killed and more than 500 injured during daylong clashes between quota protesters and police.

The dead were taken to different local hospitals. Doctors said some bodies were taken away by students and families.

The violence broke out around 10:30am as police and Rab members tried to disperse students of different private universities, colleges and schools who blocked Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway near ABC Centre.

During the clashes, which continued till evening, law enforcers fired several hundred times from shotguns, over 100 tear shells and more than 100 sound grenades. The protesters hurled brick chips, said witnesses.

Around one kilometre stretch of the highway up to Rajlakshmi turned into a battlefield.

As students took many wounded protesters to local hospitals, doctors struggled to accommodate them all.

Doctors of three hospitals said they had to treat victims on the road in front of their hospitals as a large number of injured people were rushed there.

They said many of the dead were hit by shotgun pellets fired from close range.

In the evening, protesters gathered around Uttara Purba Police Station, and police fired from shotguns, leaving several of them injured, witnesses said.

Several establishments and a BGB vehicle were torched near the police station, according to witnesses.

JATRABARI

A clash between police and protesters erupted at Jatrabari intersection at 9:25am as police fired teargas shells.

The protesters regrouped at Shanir Akhra intersection and marched again towards Jatrabari where another clash took place at 11:00am.

Police fired teargas, rubber bullets, and sound grenades at the protesters. Activists from Chhatra League and Jubo League joined forces with police, throwing bricks at the protesters from the Mayor Hanif Flyover.

Around 1:30pm, the agitators reorganised and moved towards Jatrabari Police Station. They set fire to an abandoned private car next to the station. Police used water cannons to extinguish the fire and also to disperse the protesters.

Police and Rab fired several hundred rounds from shotguns and lobbed teargas shells.

Rab-10 Commander Mohammad Farid Uddin said they fired teargas, shotguns, and sound grenades to disperse the demonstrators.

DHANMONDI

A clash between quota protesters and police, who were joined by stick-wielding Jubo League men, ensued in Dhanmondi around 11:30am as police tried to disperse the students after they blocked the roads at Dhanmondi-27, witnesses said.

Farhan Faiyaaz, 17, an HSC student of Residential Model College suffered injuries and was taken to City Hospital.

Osman Gani, assistant manager of the hospital, said Farhan was dead before he was brought there.

About 200 injured people, mostly students, took treatment at the hospital.

Police fired teargas canisters to break off the agitating crowds, while Jubo League men chased the students.

The protesters later took position at different alleys, and violence spilled over to nearby areas.

Chased, students took shelters at different residential buildings where police lobbed teargas shells, creating panic, residents said.

BADDA

In Badda and Rampura, a man was killed and over 200 others, including students and police, were injured during a series of clashes.

Victim Dulal Matbor, a microbus driver, suffered serious wounds while crossing the area during the clashes. He was taken to a nearby hospital with a hole in his chest around 12:30pm where doctors declared him dead. Doctors could not immediately confirm whether the hole is from a bullet.

The protesters torched 12 motorcycles and the office of the assistant commissioner (traffic) of Rampura zone police box.

Police charged batons and fired teargas canisters at the students. They also lobbed teargas inside the campus of Canadian University of Bangladesh at Merul Badda, witnesses said. Both police and protesters also hurled brick chunks at each other.

Witnesses said several hundred students took to the street in front of the university campus around 10:30am. The clash began as police tried to bar them.

Later, students regrouped and chased away the police members. The clash spilled over to Rampura Bridge, where students of East West University joined the protest. The students allegedly vandalised a traffic police box and torched several motorcycles in Rampura.

At one point, policemen entered the Canadian University of Bangladesh and the demonstrators took position outside. Police fired from shotguns and lobbed teargas shells from inside the university, leaving many wounded. Several shops and establishments were vandalised by the protesters at the time.

Around 3:00pm, Rab helicopters airlifted 60 police personnel from the rooftop of a building.

The protesters also took position in Badda Link Road where some commoners also took part.

MIRPUR-10

Quota reform activists and police aided by Awami League men clashed at Mirpur 10 intersection. Police lobbed teargas shells and sound grenades, dispersing the protesters.

The protesters set fire to a footbridge at Mirpur 10.

Earlier, over 100 students chased AL leaders and activists who were holding a rally at the intersection. They also vandalised chairs brought for the rally and tore down banners.

Later, a chase and counter-chase between stick-wielding demonstrators and AL activists took place.