Police, students clash in Bangladesh as protests over job quotas kill 6 more

Thousands of students armed with sticks and rocks clashed with armed police in Dhaka on Thursday as the Bangladesh authorities cut some mobile internet services to quell anti-quota protests that have killed at least 12 people this week.

The nationwide protests are the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected to a fourth term in office, and are fuelled by high unemployment among the youth, with nearly a fifth of the 170 million population out of work or education.

Six people died in clashes with police in Dhaka on Thursday, including a bus driver whose body was brought to a hospital with a bullet wound to his chest, and a student, officials told Reuters. Hundreds more were injured, they said.

Law Minister Anisul Huq said the government was willing to talk to the protesters, who want the state to stop setting aside 30% of government jobs for the families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to independence, has so far rejected the protesters' demands.

"We are willing to sit (and talk with them). Whenever they want to sit in the discussion, it will happen," Huq said.