Bangladesh calls day of mourning for victims of unrest

Bangladesh's government called for a day of mourning Tuesday for victims of violence in nationwide unrest, but students denounced the gesture as disrespectful of classmates killed during clashes with police this month.

Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of violence that killed at least 206 people, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

The clashes were some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 15-year tenure but her government has since largely restored order with mass arrests, troop deployments and a nationwide internet shutdown that was rescinded on Sunday.

Her administration said the violence, destruction of government buildings and "terrorist activities" at the height of the unrest would be solemnly marked on Tuesday with prayers in mosques around the nation.

However, Students Against Discrimination, the group that organised the initial protests, said the government's announcement was intended to deflect blame for the death toll from police.

"Instead of ensuring justice for the mass murders committed by the state forces, students have been cruelly mocked," Mahin Sarker, one of the group's coordinators, said in a statement.

More than 10,000 people have been arrested in the wake of the unrest, according to the Daily Star newspaper, prompting criticism from rights groups of the extent of the police dragnet.

"The mass arrest and arbitrary detention of student protesters is a witch hunt by the authorities to silence anyone who dares to challenge the government," Amnesty International's Smriti Singh said in a statement.

Hasina's government has accused opposition parties including the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami of hijacking the protests to cause unrest.

Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina's ruling Awami League, said the government had decided to ban Jamaat and its student wing as a result of their "past and present activities", with the order to take effect as early as Wednesday.

Jamaat is already banned from contesting elections but the new order would outlaw the party and prevent it from holding any public gatherings.

Party leader Shafiqur Rahman condemned the order as "illegal, beyond jurisdiction and anti-constitution".

Troops are still patrolling urban areas and a nationwide curfew remains in force, but the latter has been progressively eased since the start of last week in a sign of the government's confidence that it was in control.

Protests began this month over the reintroduction of a quota scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.

With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League.

The Supreme Court drastically cut the number of reserved jobs after the unrest but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the most contentious aspects of the system.