On Thursday, thirteen people were killed in Dhaka as thousands of students with sticks and stones clashed violently with police armed with guns. This was the worst day yet of violence in Bangladesh's protests against a government policy which sets quotas to allocate jobs.

Authorities have cut off some mobile internet services in an attempt to calm the unrest that has claimed at least 19 lives this week.

Officials said that among the people who died in Thursday's incident, which was the deadliest day to date, were a bus driver, who had been brought to hospital with a chest bullet wound, a rickshaw puller, and three students.

Witnesses said that hundreds of people were hurt when police used tear gas and rubber balls to disperse groups of protesters who set fire to vehicles, police stations and other establishments.

High youth unemployment is the main cause of this nationwide agitation. It's the largest since Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister, was reelected in January. A fifth of Bangladesh's 170,000,000 population is unemployed or out of school.

Protesters demand that the government stop reserving 30% of all jobs in the public sector for families of those who fought against Pakistan during the war of independence of 1971.

Hasina’s government abolished the quotas system in 2018 but a High Court restored it last month. The government appealed the verdict, and the Supreme Court suspended its order pending the hearing of the government's case on August 7.

U.N. spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric said that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all parties to exercise restraint and asked the authorities to investigate any acts of violence.

"The Secretary-General encourages meaningful and constructive involvement of youth in order to tackle the ongoing challenges that Bangladesh faces." Dujarric told reporters that violence is never the answer.

Dhaka was the site of at least 11 deaths on Thursday. On Thursday, there were more violent protests outside the capital's main campus.

Anisul Huq, the Law Minister, said that the government is willing to talk with protesters.

Demonstrators refused to open fire, stating that "discussions and firing do not go together".

"We can't trample on dead bodies in order to have a discussion." Nahid Islam, protest coordinator told the.

Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led Bangladesh to its independence, has rejected the protesters' demand that the jobs policies be scrapped. Hasina said the matter was in the court's hands.

Security forces have been deployed on campuses to maintain order.