Clashes between Bangladeshi police and students to impose an indefinite curfew

Clashes between students and police in Bangladesh demanding an end to emergency rule spilled out of campuses into the streets of the capital Wednesday, prompting the government to impose an indefinite curfew.

Photo: Clashes between Bangladeshi police and students to impose an indefinite curfew

The government's order came after stone-throwing students rampaged through the streets of Dhaka, setting cars and buses on fire and battling with police, who used batons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Wednesday also saw the first death since the clashes erupted two days earlier at the University of Dhaka. Hundreds of injuries have been reported from the violence.

The death occurred when students from Rajshahi University, in northwestern Bangladesh, set the vice chancellor's home on fire and attacked a police checkpoint, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.

There were competing accounts of how the unidentified man died - students charged that police fatally beat him, but police said the man was killed by a stone thrown by one of the protesters.

Demonstrations have spread across the grindingly poor South Asian country in the past three days with students demanding an end to emergency rule, imposed in January when President Iajuddin Ahmed canceled scheduled elections and declared a state of emergency. The interim government now running Bangladesh is doing so with the backing of the military, which ruled the country throughout the 1980s demanding an end to emergency rule spilled out of campuses into the streets of the capital Wednesday, prompting the government to impose an indefinite curfew.

The government's order came after stone-throwing students rampaged through the streets of Dhaka, setting cars and buses on fire and battling with police, who used batons and tear gas to disperse the protesters.

Wednesday also saw the first death since the clashes erupted two days earlier at the University of Dhaka. Hundreds of injuries have been reported from the violence.

The death occurred when students from Rajshahi University, in northwestern Bangladesh, set the vice chancellor's home on fire and attacked a police checkpoint, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.

There were competing accounts of how the unidentified man died - students charged that police fatally beat him, but police said the man was killed by a stone thrown by one of the protesters.

Demonstrations have spread across the grindingly poor South Asian country in the past three days with students demanding an end to emergency rule, imposed in January when President Iajuddin Ahmed canceled scheduled elections and declared a state of emergency. The interim government now running Bangladesh is doing so with the backing of the military, which ruled the country throughout the 1980s