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“I call on world leaders and the United Nations to immediately do all they can to end violence against people exercising their right to protest,” he said in a statement. “The murders that have already taken place must be investigated.”
More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested in Dhaka in connection with violence in Bangladesh that has left 163 people dead since students began protesting over changes in civil service recruitment rules, police said on Monday.
Student protests in Bangladesh have turned into the worst unrest the country has seen in years.
The South Asian country has imposed a curfew, soldiers are patrolling cities and the internet has been cut across the country since Thursday, severely restricting the flow of information to the outside world.
Several police officers were also killed in the protests, according to police and hospital casualty reports provided to AFP.
The country’s Supreme Court on Sunday relaxed its order on coveted public sector jobs, but that did not immediately reassure student leaders.
However, on Monday, the main group behind the protests, Students Against Discrimination, said it would halt protests for two days.
“We will stop the protest for 48 hours,” the group’s head, Nahid Islam, told AFP. “We demand that the government lift the curfew during this period, restore internet connectivity and stop harassing protesting students.”
At the time, the United Arab Emirates jailed 57 Bangladeshis who were protesting against the government in the country, state media reported on Monday. The Gulf state banned demonstrations.
According to the UAE’s official news agency WAM, three people were sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing and participating in the rally, 53 people were sentenced to 10 years in prison, and one person was sentenced to 11 years in prison for organizing and participating in the rally.
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