Nationwide student protests enter day 5 in Bangladesh

Dhaka: Bangladesh shut down high schools across the country on Thursday as tens of thousands of students protested for a fifth straight day after two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus.

Bangladesh's transport sector is widely seen as corrupt, unregulated, and dangerous, and as news of the teenagers' deaths spread rapidly on social media, they became a catalyst for a massive outpouring of anger. Authorities have pleaded with students to call off the protests that have near-paralysed Dhaka and spread beyond the capital, with vehicles vandalised and clashes with police in some parts.

The demonstrators, mostly students in their mid-teens, chanted "we want justice" on Thursday as they defied pouring rain to march in Dhaka for another day, bringing traffic to a standstill.

The education ministry shut down high schools Thursday in an effort to quell unrest, promising students their demands for reforms to road safety would be considered. But anger has not subdued since a bus racing for passengers killed a boy and a girl on the roadside on Sunday, igniting the protests.

Protesters are blaming the government for failing to enforce traffic laws, and an insensitive comment by Shajahan Khan, a government minister with ties to powerful transport unions, triggered fresh outrage.