Dhaka/IBNS: The Bangladesh government has imposed a countrywide curfew and deployed troops as at least 32 deaths have been reported so far since Friday morning in violent protests and clashes over the government job quota system, media reports said.

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina decided to deploy the army on Friday night during a 14-party meeting at Ganobhaban. The curfew is in place till midnight.

Bangladesh's government has already shut down internet services across the country.

Television news channels in Bangladesh were off the air and telecommunications were widely disrupted as violent student protests against quotas for government jobs continued to rock the country.

Student protesters stormed a jail in the central Bangladeshi district of Narsingdi and freed the facility’s inmates before setting it on fire.

Police struggled to quell unrest, with huge rallies in Dhaka despite a police ban on public gatherings.

On Thursday, a state broadcaster's building was put on blaze as relentless violence gripped the South Asian country following multiple clashes between the protesters, security officials and pro-government protesters.

Eyewitnesses told Prothom Alo that more than a hundred people entered BTV headquarters by breaking the main gate.

The protest began on July 1 after the High Court's reinstatement of the freedom fighters' quota.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already appealed to students to end the protest.

Law minister Anisul Huq said the government would sit with the demonstrators.

"I have told the attorney general to appeal to the court on Sunday for an early hearing in this regard," he was quoted as saying by Prothom Alo.