• 32 killed, 1,000 injured in unrest
• ‘Near-total’ internet shutdown reported across the country

DHAKA: Bangladeshi students set fire to the country’s state broadcaster on Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared on the network seeking to calm escalating clashes that have killed at least 32 people.

Nearly 1,000 others had been treated at the hospital for injuries sustained during clashes with police, the official said, adding many had rubber bullet wounds.

The country was experiencing a “near-total” internet shutdown on Thursday night, outage monitor Netblocks said.

“Live network data show #Bangladesh is now in the midst of a near-total internet shutdown,” the group said in a post on X. Hundreds of protesters demanding reform of civil service hiring rules fought back and overwhelmed riot police who had fired at them with rubber bullets.

The incensed crowd chased the retreating officers to BTV’s headquarters in the capital Dhaka, then set ablaze the network’s reception building and dozens of vehicles parked outside.

“Many people” were trapped inside as the fire spread, the broadcaster said in a Facebook post, but an official from the station later said that they had safely evacuated the building.

“The fire is still going on,” the official said. “We have come out to the main gate. Our broadcast has been shut down for now.” Hasina’s government has ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police step up efforts to bring the country’s deteriorating law and order situation under control.

The premier appeared on the broadcaster on Wednesday night to condemn the “murder” of protesters and vow that those responsible will be punished regardless of their political affiliation. But violence worsened on the streets despite her appeal for calm as police again attempted to break up demonstrations with rubber bullets and tear gas volleys.

“Our first demand is that the prime minister must apologise to us,” protester Bidisha Rimjhim, 18, said. “Secondly, justice must be ensured for our killed brothers,” she added.

At least 25 people were killed on Thursday in addition to seven killed earlier in the week, according to a tally of casualty figures from hospitals, with hundreds more wounded. “We’ve got seven dead here,” an official at Uttara Crescent Hospital in the capital Dhaka, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said.

“The first two were students with rubber bullet injuries. The other five had gunshot injuries.”

Didar Malekin of the online news outlet Dhaka Times said that Mehedi Hasan, one of his reporters, had been killed while covering clashes in Dhaka. Several cities across Bangladesh saw violence throughout the day as riot police marched on protesters who had begun another round of human blockades on roads and highways.

Helicopters rescued 60 police officers who were trapped on the roof of a campus building at Canadian University, the scene of some of Dhaka’s fiercest clashes on Thursday, the elite Rapid Action Battalion police force said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024