Bangladesh: Dozens of children killed in protests – Unicef

A spokesperson for the UN agency said most of those killed were aged 13 or older, with one under five and one child aged between six and 12.

“Children must be protected at all times,” Mr Wijesekera said. “That is everyone’s responsibility.”

Bangladeshi junior Information Minister Mohammad Ali Arafat responded that the government had no information regarding Unicef’s death toll.

“We don’t know where they [Unicef] got the numbers from,” he told the BBC, adding: “Our position is clear: Whoever has been killed, we are going to investigate and bring the perpetrators to book.”

Security forces have been accused of using excessive force to quell the initial protests, with many of the dead and injured suffering gunshot wounds, according to doctors who spoke to the BBC.

But the government – which has said a number of police officers were also killed – has blamed political opponents for the unrest.

On Thursday, it banned the country’s main Islamist party – Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir – which it claimed was behind some of the violence.

“We have evidence that they have participated in the killings and in the destruction of government and private properties,” Anisul Huq, Bagladesh’s law minister, told the BBC.

The opposition party’s leader described the move as “illegal, extrajudicial and unconstitutional”.