Bangladesh student protesters storm prison, free hundreds of inmates
DHAKA: Bangladeshi student protesters stormed a prison and freed hundreds of inmates Friday as police struggled to quell unrest, with huge rallies in the capital Dhaka despite a police ban on public gatherings.
This week's unrest has killed at least 64 people, according to an AFP count of victims reported by hospitals, and emerged as an unprecedented threat to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's autocratic government after 15 years in office.
Student protesters stormed a jail in the central Bangladeshi district of Narsingdi and freed the facility's inmates before setting the facility on fire, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"I don't know the number of inmates, but it would be in the hundreds," he added.
Dhaka's police force took the drastic step of banning all public gatherings for the day -- a first since protests began -- in an effort to forestall another day of violence.
"We've banned all rallies, processions and public gatherings in Dhaka today," police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP, adding the move was necessary to ensure "public safety".
That did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling megacity of 20 million people, despite an internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.
"Our protest will continue," Sarwar Tushar, who joined a march in the capital and sustained minor injuries when it was violently dispersed by police, told AFP.
"We want the immediate resignation of Sheikh Hasina. The government is responsible for the killings."
At least 19 people were killed in the city on Friday, according to a list drawn up by the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and seen by AFP.
Police fire was the cause of more than half of the deaths reported so far this week, based on descriptions given to AFP by hospital staff.
The capital's police force earlier said protesters had on Thursday 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 incensed students stormed the premises and set fire to a building.
"About 100 policemen were injured in the clashes yesterday," Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP Hossain told AFP. "Around 50 police booths were burnt".
Hossain said police had arrested Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, the joint secretary of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
"He faces hundreds of cases," Hossain said, without giving further details on the reasons for Ahmed's detention.
