DHAKA – At least 55 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes in Bangladesh on Sunday, as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of protesters calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.

The government declared an indefinite nationwide curfew starting at 6 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) on Sunday, the first time it has taken such a step during the current protests that began last month. It also announced a three-day general holiday starting from Monday. The unrest, which has prompted the government to shut down internet services, is Hasina’s biggest test since January when deadly protests erupted after she won a fourth straight term in elections that were boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Critics of Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force to stamp out the movement, a charge she and her ministers deny. Demonstrators blocked major highways on Sunday as student protesters launched a non-cooperation program to press for the government’s resignation, and violence spread nationwide.

“Those who are protesting on the streets right now are not students, but terrorists who are out to destabilize the nation,” Hasina said after a national security panel meeting, attended by the chiefs of the army, navy, air force, police and other agencies. “I appeal to our countrymen to suppress these terrorists with a strong hand.”

Police stations and ruling party offices were targeted as violence rocked the country of 170 million people. Twelve policemen were beaten to death in the north-western district of Sirajganj, police official Bijoy Bosak said. At least five people were killed and dozens injured amid fierce clashes in several places in the capital, Dhaka, police and witnesses said.

Police said they had not fired any bullets, however, when some improvised explosives were detonated and the area turned into a battleground. In the northeastern district of Pabna, at least three people were killed and 50 injured during a clash between protesters and activists of Hasina’s ruling Awami League, witnesses said. Two more were killed in violence in the northern district of Bogura, and five were killed in four other districts, hospital officials said. (CNN)…[+]