Weeks of escalating civil unrest in Bangladesh

Student protests against civil service hiring rules in Bangladesh have spiralled into the country's worst unrest in years, with at least 151 people killed and widespread destruction in the capital Dhaka.AFP recounts how the demonstrations began and this week's onset of deadly violence.- July 1: Protest blockades begin - University students around Bangladesh begin daily human blockades of roads, highways and railway lines, disrupting transport to demand reforms of a quota system for sought-after public sector job hires.They say the scheme is used to stack the civil service with supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League, leaving more worthy candidates jobless.Hasina says on July 7 that the students are "wasting their time" and that there was "no justification" for demands to reform the scheme.- July 11: Police launch crackdown - Police begin efforts to clear the demonstrations, firing rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse a blockade in the eastern city of Comilla.But they fail to subdue demonstrators in Dhaka, with crowds mounting a police vehicle and dismantling a police barricade.- July 15: Rival student groups clash - Members of the Awami League's student wing clash with demonstrators in the capital, injuring more than 400 people.The rival student demonstrators battle for hours with hurled bricks and bamboo rods on the campus of Dhaka University, the country's most prestigious higher learning institution.- July 16: First deaths, schools shut - Six people are killed in clashes around Bangladesh as the previous day's events inflame tensions.Hasina's government orders the nationwide closure of schools and universities until further notice.The paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh is deployed to keep order in several big cities across the country.Students at Dhaka University go through dorm rooms to order pro-government classmates to leave the campus, forcibly expelling those who refuse.- July 17: Hasina addresses nation - Dhaka University students stage a funeral for the six people killed the previous day, carrying empty coffins draped with the red-and-green national flag to symbolise the dead.The ceremony is broken up by riot police moments after it begins.Hasina gives a nationwide address on state broadcaster Bangladesh Television (BTV) to appeal for calm, vowing that every "murder" in the unrest would be punished, regardless of who was responsible.A seventh protester is reported dead hours after her speech.- July 18: Buildings torched, nationwide internet blackout - Students reject Hasina's olive branch, returning to the streets to chant "down with the dictator".At least 32 people are killed and hundreds more injured in clashes throughout the day.Protesters in Dhaka set fire to the BTV headquarters, dozens of police posts and other government buildings.Private broadcaster Independent Television reports clashes in at least 26 of Bangladesh's 64 districts.A nationwide internet blackout is imposed after nightfall and remains in effect.- July 19: Rally ban, jailbreak -Police issue a day-long ban on all public rallies in the capital to "ensure public safety", but violence worsens.Thousands of people besiege a prison in central Narsingdi district, freeing more than 800 prisoners before setting part of the facility on fire.Late at night the government announces a round-the-clock curfew and the deployment of the military to keep order in cities.- July 20: Troops out in force -Streets in Dhaka are almost deserted at dawn as soldiers patrol, on foot and in armoured personnel carriers, the sprawling megacity of 20 million people.Thousands later defy the curfew to return to the streets in the residential neighbourhood of Rampura, with police firing at the crowd and wounding at least one person.Hasina abandons plans to leave the country on July 21 for a pre-scheduled diplomatic tour to Spain and Brazil.- July 21: Supreme Court verdict -Bangladesh's Supreme Court, seen by critics as a rubber stamp for the will of Hasina's government, rules that a lower bench's decision last month to reintroduce job quotas was illegal.Its verdict falls short of protester demands to entirely abolish a contentious part of the scheme reserving some jobs for children of independence war "freedom fighters".The court asks protesting students to "return to class".The death toll passes 150 including several police officers, according to the latest AFP tally of police and hospital figures.