Dozens of people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured as thousands of students armed with sticks and rocks clash with armed police in Bangladesh.

The unrest which has spread across the country, is the biggest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected earlier this year.

With a fifth of the country’s 170 million population unemployed, many say unemployment has fueled the latest violence.

Students across Bangladesh are protesting against a policy that sets quotas for the allocation of government jobs.

They are demanding the government stop setting aside 30% of government jobs for the families of people who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government scrapped the quota system in 2018, but the High Court reinstated it last month.

The government is appealing against the verdict and the Supreme Court suspended the High Court order, pending hearing the government’s appeal on August 7.

Television news channels in Bangladesh were off the air and telecommunication networks were widely disrupted as authorities have blocked some mobile networks.

Al Jazeera.