Hasina told a group of business leaders in her office Monday that the student protesters were not involved in the “arson terrorism”, accusing the opposition Bangladesh National Party and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist group, of carrying out militant-like attacks.

“I didn’t want to impose the curfew,” Hasina was cited as saying by Somoy TV. “But they carried out the widespread violence using the students as tools, forcing me to impose the curfew.”

The unrest is the deadliest since Hasina extended her grip in power for a fourth term in elections in January, promising to further develop the country. It is also a major headache for a government seeking more money from creditors and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bolster dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.

While Hasina has overseen one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and helped lift millions out of poverty, those achievements are often overshadowed by what critics contend is her authoritarianism. They allege the 76-year-old leader has used state institutions to stamp out dissent and stifle the media, something she denies.

Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, who faces time in prison and is seen as Hasina’s rival, called on world leaders and the United Nations to “do everything in their powers” to end the violence against those who are exercising the right to protest.

“There must be investigations into the killings that have taken place already,” he said in a statement.

Internet services remained shut off in Bangladesh for a fifth day while soldiers patrolled the main cities to enforce the curfew, initially imposed from Saturday midnight. Security forces have arrested more than 1,200 people and so far, the death toll stands at more than 170 people, with hundreds more injured, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency.

The army chief said the law-and-order situation had been brought “under control”, local media reported.

The student protests were initially a reaction to the High Court reinstating a controversial government jobs quota system, which gives preferential treatment to families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The Supreme Court on Sunday rolled back most of the system, directing the students to return to their classes and for the government to carry out the order. Jobs are a major issue in the country, which has an official policy encouraging its citizens to go oversees to find work and depends heavily on foreign remittances.

The jobs situation has turned more acute since the pandemic, as youth unemployment has stayed persistently high and the private sector has struggled to expand.

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