Everything remains very volatile, intense, and it's very critical right now, said Al Jazeera's Tanvir Chowdhury, reporting from the capital, Dhaka. Just a quarter mile from where I am, there are about six universities, which were demonstrating since morning, and we can still hear gunfire, stun grenades and all sorts of noises coming from that area because the students refused to leave.
The death toll from Thursday's violence had risen to 32, the AFP news agency reported on Friday. That number could not be immediately verified. Al Jazeera had previously reported that at least 19 protesters were killed by Thursday night, with the majority in the capital, Dhaka.
The death toll could rise with reports of clashes in nearly half of the country's 64 districts. More than 1,000 people have been injured.
A police statement issued after a near-total shutdown of the nation's internet imposed by the government on Thursday said protesters had torched, vandalised and carried out destructive activities on numerous police and government offices. Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which remains offline after hundreds of students stormed the premises and set fire to a building.
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