DHAKA: At least eight people were killed on Sunday, including from knife cuts and gunshot wounds, in clashes between Bangladeshi protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and pro-government supporters, police and doctors said.
Three were killed in the northern district of Pabna, two in the northern district of Rangpur, two in the capital Dhaka's Munshiganj district and one in the western district of Magura, police and hospital doctors told AFP news agency.
Asif Mahmud, one of the main protest leaders of a nationwide civil disobedience campaign, called on his supporters to prepare for battle.
“Prepare bamboo sticks and liberate Bangladesh,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
While the army intervened to restore order after earlier protests, some former military officers have now joined the student movement and former army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan has colored his Facebook profile picture red as a sign of support.
Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman spoke to officers at the military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday and told them that “Bangladesh Army is the symbol of the people's trust.”
“They have always stood by the side of the people and will do so for the good of the people and in all matters of the state,” he said, according to an army statement released late Saturday.
No further details were given in the statement, nor was it explicitly stated whether the army supports the protests.
Rallies against public sector job quotas sparked days of unrest in July that left more than 200 people dead, some of the worst unrest during Hasina's 15-year rule.
Troops briefly restored order, but this week huge crowds returned to the streets in a sweeping campaign of civil disobedience aimed at paralyzing the government.
As hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through Dhaka on Saturday, the police consisted largely of bystanders watching the rallies.
Growing movement
The protests have become a broader anti-government movement throughout the South Asian country with around 170 million inhabitants.
The mass movement involves people from all walks of Bangladeshi society, including film stars, musicians and singers. Rap songs asking for support have gone viral on social media.
“It's no longer about work quotas,” said Sakhawat, a young protester who gave only one name as she scrawled graffiti on the wall at a protest site in Dhaka calling Hasina a “murderer.”
“We want our next generation to be able to live freely in the country.”
Counter-protests in support of the government are also expected.
Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina's ruling Awami League, has called on party activists to gather in “all areas of Dhaka city” and “in every district” of the country to show their support for the government.
“We do not want to get involved in any kind of confrontation,” said Quader.
The situation in the capital Dhaka was tense on Sunday as fewer cars and buses were on the normally congested streets of the megacity of 20 million inhabitants.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected in Dhaka and across the country.
Student protest
Students Against Discrimination, the group that organized the first protests, called for rallies across the country.
There will be protests at the entry points to Dhaka, with the main rallies taking place at Dhaka's central Shahbagh Square, where large crowds gathered on Sunday morning.
“We will hold our protests and rallies peacefully,” the group said in a statement late Saturday. “But if someone attacks us, we urge (everyone) to make all preparations.”
To put pressure on the government, students against discrimination have called on their compatriots to stop paying taxes and electricity bills from Sunday.
They have also called on civil servants and workers in textile factories, which are important to the country's economy, to go on strike.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote with no real opposition.
Human rights groups accuse the government of abusing state institutions to consolidate its power and suppress dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
In early July, there were demonstrations against the reintroduction of the quota system, which reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. Bangladesh's highest court has since scaled back the system.
