DHAKA: Bangladeshi students pressed on Thursday with nationwide protests against civil service hiring rules, rebuffing an olive branch from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who pledged justice for 18 killed in the demonstrations.
Hasina's government has ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely and stepped up efforts to contain weeks of rallies demanding equal access to public sector jobs.
Riot police again fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds of protesters, with 11 more deaths reported through the day as the government ordered the shutdown of mobile internet networks to quell demonstrations.
Hasina condemned the "murder" of protesters in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday and vowed that those responsible will be punished regardless of their political affiliation.
But Students Against Discrimination, the main group behind this month's rallies, dismissed her words as insincere and urged supporters to press on.
"It did not reflect the murders and mayhem carried out by her party activists," Asif Mahmud, one of the coordinators of the protests, said.
Fresh clashes broke out in several cities across Bangladesh throughout the day as riot police marched on protesters, who began another round of human blockades on roads and highways.
Police injured dozens of students by firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at a crowd of more than 1,000 people gathered at Bangladesh's top private university in Dhaka.
Helicopters rescued 60 police officers who were trapped on the roof of a campus building at Canadian University, the scene of some of the capital's fiercest clashes on Thursday, the elite Rapid Action Battalion police force said in a statement.
Three students and a rickshaw driver were brought dead to one Dhaka hospital.
"They all had rubber bullet injuries," Kuwait Moitri Hospital assistant superintendent Mahfuz Ara Begum said.
"More than 150 students are also being treated here. Most were hit by rubber bullets in their eyes." Other hospitals reported a combined total of seven other deaths through the day, including five in Dhaka and two in nearby cities. Seven others were killed earlier this week. - AFP
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