DHAKA: Clashes between Bangladeshi protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and pro-government supporters on Sunday left at least eight people dead, including in stab and bullet wounds, police and medics said.
Three died in the northern district of Pabna, two in the northern district of Rangpur, two in the capital's Munshiganj district and one in the western district of Magura, police and hospital doctors told AFP.
Asif Mahmood, one of the key protest leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign, asked supporters to be ready to fight.
“Get the bamboo sticks ready and free Bangladesh,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday.
While the army stepped in to help restore order after earlier protests, some former officers have since joined the student movement, and former army chief General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan painted his Facebook profile picture red in support.
Current army chief Waqer-uz-Zaman spoke to officers at the military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday, telling them that “the Bangladesh Army is a symbol of the people's trust”.
“She has always stood by the people and will continue to do so for the people and in any need of the state,” he said, according to an army statement released Saturday night.
The statement did not provide further details and did not directly say whether the army supports the protests.
Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked mass riots in July that left more than 200 dead in the worst rioting in Hasina's 15 years in office.
Troops briefly restored order, but crowds returned to the streets in large numbers this week in an all-out non-cooperation movement aimed at paralyzing the government.
On Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Dhaka, the police largely monitored the rallies.
The movement is growing
The protests have grown into a wider anti-government movement in the South Asian country of about 170 million people.
The grassroots movement includes people from all walks of life in Bangladesh, including film stars, musicians and singers, and rap songs calling for support have gone viral on social media.
“It's not about job quotas anymore,” said Sakhawat, a young protester who gave only one name as she scrawled graffiti on a 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 the ruling Hasin Awami League, called on party activists to gather in “all areas of Dhaka city” and “in every district” across the country to show their support for the government.
“We don't want to be involved in any kind of confrontation,” Quader said.
The capital city of Dhaka was busy on Sunday, with fewer cars and buses on the normally congested streets of the metropolis of 20 million people.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to rally in Dhaka and across the country.
Student protest
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the first protests, called for rallies across the country.
The protests will be held at the entrance to Dhaka, while the main rallies will take place in Dhaka's central Shahbag Square, where crowds of people 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 take all the preparations.”
Students Against Discrimination asked compatriots to stop paying taxes and utility bills from Sunday to increase pressure on the government.
They also asked civil servants and workers in the country's economically important garment factories to go on strike.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after being voted out without real opposition.
Human rights groups accuse her government of abusing state institutions to consolidate power and suppress dissent, including through extrajudicial killings of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota system that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. It has since been curtailed by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
