Nearly 100 people, including 14 police officers, were killed during clashes across Bangladesh on Sunday as student-led protesters demanded the prime minister's resignation.
The deadly violence led the government to impose an indefinite, 6 p.m. nationwide curfew, order telecom companies to shut down internet access and declare a three-day holiday starting Monday, Reuters reported.
Conflicting reports by local news outlets put the death toll as low as 85 and as high as 95 with hundreds more wounded, according to the Associated Press.
The killings were the highest during a single day of demonstrations in recent history, and topped the 67 deaths reported July 19 after student activists called for an end to quotas that set aside 30% of government jobs for relatives of veterans of the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan, Reuters said.
The country's Supreme Court responded by slashing the veterans's quotas to 5%, with 93% of jobs awarded on merit and the remaining 2% reserved for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people, AP said.
But protesters have continued to press for accountability over the violence they blame on the government's use of force.
Sunday's victims included 11 people killed during fighting in the capital of Dhaka, where AP said crude bombs were detonated, and video footage showed protesters vandalizing a police van.
Other videos showed protesters setting fire to vehicles and the ruling Awami League party's offices, and the police firing bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas into crowds, AP reported.
Thirteen police officers were beaten to death in the northwestern district of Sirajganj, according to Reuters, and another was killed in the eastern district of Cumilla, AP said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has ruled for more than 15 years and won a fourth term when her main opponents boycotted a January election, urged citizens to help crack down on the protesters.
"Those who are carrying out violence are not students but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation," she said after meeting with national security officials. "I appeal to our countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a strong hand."
On Saturday, Hasina's offer to meet with student leaders was rejected with a one-point demand that she step down.
