Bangladesh clashes kill 12 as protesters push for PM to resign
protesters calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
The unrest, which spurred the government to shut down internet services, is its biggest test since deadly protests when Hasina won a fourth straight term in January elections boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Critics of Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement, a charge she and her ministers deny.
Demonstrators blocked major highways on Sunday as student protesters launched a non-cooperation program to press for the government's resignation, and violence spread nationwide.
«Those who are protesting on the streets right now are not students, but terrorists who are out to destabilise the nation,» Hasina said after a national security panel meeting.
«I appeal to our countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a strong hand.»
Two construction workers were killed on their way to work and 30 injured in the central district of Munsiganj, during a three-way clash of protesters, police and ruling party activists, witnesses said.
«They were brought dead to the hospital with bullet wounds,» said Abu Hena Mohammad Jamal, the superintendent of the district hospital.
Police said they had not fired any bullets, however, when some improvised explosives were detonated and the area turned into a battleground.
In the northeastern district of Pabna, at least three people were killed and 50 injured during a clash between protesters and activists of Hasina's
