Curfew after clashes

DHAKA – Clashes between Bangladeshi police and students demanding an end to emergency rule spilled out of campuses into the streets of the capital yesterday, prompting the government to impose an indefinite curfew.

The government’s order came after stone-throwing students rampaged through the streets of Dhaka, setting cars and buses on fire and battling with police, who used batons and tear gas to disperse the protesters. Yesterday also saw the first death since the clashes erupted two days earlier at the University of Dhaka.Hundreds of injuries have been reported from the violence.The death occurred when students from Rajshahi University, in northwestern Bangladesh, set the vice chancellor’s home on fire and attacked a police checkpoint, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.There were competing accounts of how the unidentified man died – students charged that police fatally beat him, but police said the man was killed by a stone thrown by one of the protesters.Demonstrations have spread across the grindingly poor South Asian country in the past three days with students demanding an end to emergency rule, imposed in January when President Iajuddin Ahmed cancelled scheduled elections and declared a state of emergency.The interim government now running Bangladesh is doing so with the backing of the military, which ruled the country throughout the 1980s.The protests began when University of Dhaka students called for the removal of an army post from the campus.The soldiers withdrew a day later after violent protests left 150 injured, but the students’ demands escalated and the protests continued.”It seems the situation is worsening,” University of Dhaka official Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah told The Associated Press yesterday.Within hours of his comments, students were battling police in downtown Dhaka.Away from the clashes, students put up burning barricades on the largely deserted streets.The government first warned in a statement yesterday afternoon that it would ‘be compelled to take tough action to maintain normalcy’ if there was no end to the protests, which are banned under emergency rules.A short while later, authorities imposed an indefinite curfew starting at 14h00 GMT in Dhaka and five other major cities.The move was intended to ‘protect public life and property’, said Law and Information Adviser Mainul Hosein.”We hope the measure will help restore normalcy.”The decision was made at a meeting of leaders of the interim government and military, he added.Nampa-APYesterday also saw the first death since the clashes erupted two days earlier at the University of Dhaka.Hundreds of injuries have been reported from the violence.The death occurred when students from Rajshahi University, in northwestern Bangladesh, set the vice chancellor’s home on fire and attacked a police checkpoint, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.There were competing accounts of how the unidentified man died – students charged that police fatally beat him, but police said the man was killed by a stone thrown by one of the protesters.Demonstrations have spread across the grindingly poor South Asian country in the past three days with students demanding an end to emergency rule, imposed in January when President Iajuddin Ahmed cancelled scheduled elections and declared a state of emergency.The interim government now running Bangladesh is doing so with the backing of the military, which ruled the country throughout the 1980s.The protests began when University of Dhaka students called for the removal of an army post from the campus.The soldiers withdrew a day later after violent protests left 150 injured, but the students’ demands escalated and the protests continued.”It seems the situation is worsening,” University of Dhaka official Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah told The Associated Press yesterday.Within hours of his comments, students were battling police in downtown Dhaka.Away from the clashes, students put up burning barricades on the largely deserted streets.The government first warned in a statement yesterday afternoon that it would ‘be compelled to take tough action to maintain normalcy’ if there was no end to the protests, which are banned under emergency rules.A short while later, authorities imposed an indefinite curfew starting at 14h00 GMT in Dhaka and five other major cities.The move was intended to ‘protect public life and property’, said Law and Information Adviser Mainul Hosein.”We hope the measure will help restore normalcy.”The decision was made at a meeting of leaders of the interim government and military, he added.Nampa-AP