Bangladesh's PM Sheikh Hasina cancels foreign visit amid curfew

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called off her foreign trips due to the imposition of a curfew to control the escalating civil unrest following violent student protests against quota system for government jobs. 

Riot police have clashed with protesters who defied the curfew, resulting in a reported death of at least 115 people, according to AFP.

This presents a significant challenge to the PM's government which has been in power for 15 years.

In response to the widespread disorder, the government enforced a curfew and requested military assistance after the police were unable to control the situation.

"The army has been deployed nationwide to control the law and order situation," armed forces spokesperson Shahdat Hossain told AFP.

The curfew will remain in effect until at least 10am Sunday, private broadcaster Channel 24 reported.

Streets of the capital Dhaka were almost deserted at daybreak, with troops on foot and in armoured personnel carriers patrolling the sprawling megacity of 20 million.

Thousands returned to the streets later in the day in the residential neighbourhood of Rampura, with police firing live rounds at the crowd and wounding at least one person.

"Our backs are to the wall," protester Nazrul Islam, 52, told AFP at the scene. "There's anarchy going on in the country... They are shooting at people like birds."

Hospitals have reported a growing number of gunshot deaths to AFP since Thursday.

"Hundreds of thousands of people" had battled police across the capital on Friday, police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.

"At least 150 police officers were admitted to hospital. Another 150 were given first aid treatment," he said, adding that two officers had been beaten to death.

"The protesters torched many police booths... Many government offices were torched and vandalised."

A spokesman for Students Against Discrimination, the main group organising the protests said that two of its leaders had been arrested since Friday.

A second senior official from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, party spokesperson Sairul Islam Khan said.

Hasina had been due to leave the country on Sunday for a planned diplomatic tour but abandoned her plans after a week of escalating violence.

"She has cancelled her Spain and Brazil tours due to the prevailing situation, her press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan said.