Reuters. Protesting students in Bangladesh have called for a march to the capital Dhaka on Monday (August 5) in defiance of a nationwide curfew to press Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and leave the country, a day after deadly clashes in the South Asian country killed nearly 100 people.

 

At least 91 people were killed and hundreds injured on Sunday (August 4) in a wave of violence across the country of 170 million people as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of protesters.

 

An indefinite nationwide curfew was imposed from 6 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Sunday with railway services suspended and the country’s huge garments industry closed.

 

Bangladesh has been engulfed by protests and violence that began last month after student groups demanded scrapping of a controversial quota system in government jobs. That escalated into a campaign to seek the ouster of Hasina, who won a fourth straight term in January in an election boycotted by the opposition.

 

Bangladeshis largely stayed away from the January 7 election, which was marred by violence. Turnout was about 40% when polls closed, said the Election Commission, compared with over 80% in the last election in 2018.

 

The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who participated in the 2018 vote but kept away in 2014, boycotted the polls after Hasina refused its demands that she resign and allow a neutral authority to run the general election.

 

Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh who was killed in an army coup in 1975 along with most members of the family.

 

The 76-year-old first became prime minister in 1996 and served for a term till 2001. She was re-elected to office in 2009, serving five terms overall.

 

In the past 15 years, Hasina has been credited with turning around Bangladesh’s economy and the massive garments industry, while winning international praise for sheltering Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.