Students burn down state radio station

Protesters have set fire to the headquarters of Bangladesh’s state television as violent clashes between students and police continue, authorities say.

A post on BTV’s official Facebook page warned that “many people” were trapped inside the building in Dhaka, and called for firefighters to help extinguish the blaze.

Bangladesh’s information minister told the BBC that broadcasting had been stopped and most staff had left the building in the capital.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appeared online the night before, calling for calm after days of violent protests that left at least 17 people dead, possibly many more, and hundreds injured.

Students have been holding protests demanding changes to a system that reserves a third of public sector jobs for relatives of veterans of the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Students say the system is discriminatory, requiring recruitment based on merit.

The government attempted to quell the protests by shutting down mobile internet nationwide on Thursday in an attempt to slow down the students’ advance.

Instead, it has become the deadliest day so far, with a total of 32 people dying in the protests, most of them on Thursday, according to hospital figures.

The BBC’s Bengali service has confirmed 17 deaths so far – among them a 32-year-old journalist for the Dhaka Times.

Sheikh Hasina condemned the deaths of protesters as “murder” in a televised appearance on Wednesday, but her comments were largely dismissed by protest organisers.

On Thursday, police used tear gas and rubber bullets as students formed human barricades in the streets.

According to an official at BTV, the students who stormed BTV had previously “burned down” a police station.

“They chased the police as they took refuge at the BTV office,” the official told AFP. “The angry protesters then caused chaos there.”

Bangladesh’s information minister Mohammad Ali Arafat told the BBC that staff still inside the building “felt very unsafe”.

“Surname [protesters] “got in and did the damage,” he said.

“The security forces were there in full force but… they were only physically present, they did not try to counterattack.

“But they will do it now, they will warn people and then they will take strong action to clear up the issue.”