Students run back during clashes with unidentified miscreants while protesting over recent traffic accidents that killed a boy and a girl, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh police on Sunday launched a crackdown on dangerous driving as the government tries to quell student unrest sparked by the death of two teenagers who were mowed down by a speeding bus a week ago.
Tens of thousands of students have protested since last Sunday when a privately run bus hit and killed the college students, alarming the government ahead of a general election this year.
"Our police force has started a week-long drive to bring discipline on the roads," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at an event in Dhaka on Sunday.
Spontaneous student protests are rare in Bangladesh and Hasina suggested her political rivals were using the issue to stir up anti-government sentiment.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party denied any involvement in the protests.
Separately, the U.S. embassy said in a statement outgoing envoy Marcia Bernicat's vehicle was attacked by armed men, some on motorcycles, in Dhaka on Saturday.
"The ambassador and her security team departed the area unharmed ... however, two security vehicles sustained some damage," it said in the statement issued on Sunday.
Police said they had not identified the attackers.
The protests spreading across Bangladesh have highlighted traffic risks in the densely populated country, where more than 4,000 people die in road accidents each year, one of the world's highest rates, the World Bank says.
A massive student protest in Bangladesh triggered by the death of two teenagers run down by a speeding bus in the capital has worried the government ahead of a general election and prompted a warning against opposition meddling.Traffic in heavily congested Dhaka has been paralysed and 317 vehicles set ablaze in protests that have injured at least 51 people since Sunday's incident, in which a privately run bus hit college students.Tens of thousands of uniformed school and college students have turned out, demanding a crackdown on buses, many without fitness certificates, that often engage in dangerous races in the streets."We have assured them that all their demands will be fulfilled and a law will be proposed in the next session of parliament," Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told Reuters. "But we fear the movement may turn violent as there is a conspiracy to...make the government inoperative. We'll take stern action against those conspiring to exploit this by inciting the minors."Law enforcement agencies had proof that activists of the student wing of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had been told to mix with protesters, Khan added, urging parents to steer children away from the protests.The BNP rejected the accusation of instigation."The government should resign immediately for failing to tackle road accidents and solve the crisis of mass commuting," Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, its secretary general, told Reuters."This is a pretence to cover up its failure."The protests spreading across Bangladesh have highlighted traffic risks in the densely populated country, where more than 4,000 people die in road accidents each year, one of the world's highest rates, the World Bank says.Spontaneous student protests are rare in Bangladesh and the government should handle them carefully ahead of elections due by December, said Mahbubur Rahman, a political science professor at Dhaka's North South University."Their movement acted as a spark and within a short time it spread all over the country," Rahman said. "If the government fails to control and manage it, then it will be judged as a failure of the administration and government." 
Bangladesh student protest spurs warning against opposition meddling
Dozens of students were attacked during a road safety protest in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday, according to a local media report.The Daily Star newspaper reported that the students came under attack in Dhaka’s Jhigatola neighborhood while demonstrating for road safety after two students were killed last Sunday by a bus that was allegedly speeding.The protest began with a small group of students in Dhaka and then spread across the country.A group of pro-government students attacked the student protestors with sticks, rods, stones, and pistols, said the report.The report claimed that at least 150 people -- including students, pedestrians, journalists and ruling party activists -- were wounded in the unrest.Though official statements on the situation have been lacking, the interior minister said Saturday the situation would be under control within one or two days.Demanding licensesStudents in school uniforms were seen stopping drivers and asking for their driver’s licenses, and blocking those who could not show one. Some police officers and drivers for government officials were also unable to show licenses.The government called on the students to return to class, but the students refused, demanding a safe transportation system and tighter licensing.They also accused Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, who is also executive president of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, of being responsible for rising traffic accidents.Khan, a supporter of bus drivers, has reportedly blocked regulations requiring drivers to have legal license.Students have reportedly vandalized some busses, leading bus owners to halt service, leaving commuters without transportation.The government has deployed several hundred members of the paramilitary Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) to Jigatola to get the situation under control.Bangladesh student protest spurs warning against opposition meddlingTurkey ready to help needy worldwide during Muslim eidIndia excluding 4 mln Muslims from citizens' list unites Modi critics
Student road safety protests engulf capital: Bangladesh