Bus services between Dhaka and the rest of the country remains suspended since Thursday morning following the ‘complete shutdown’ enforced by protesting students.

Staff members at different bus counters in Dhaka's Gabtoli and Sayedabad Bus Terminal told journalists that bus owners have asked them not to run any buses on the roads, Daily Sun reports.

Meanwhile, firing teargas and rubber bullets riot police clashed with quota-reform protesters in different parts of the capital city in the first hours of Thursday at the start of a nationwide complete shutdown.

During the shutdown the capital city's usual chaotic traffic was absent with a few BRTC double-decker buses opening on almost empty streets. Rickshaws ruled the streets in absence of public transports as commuters were seen walking to the destinations or standing on bus stations in the hope of catching a transport.

The students called for the shutdown, shortly after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a televised speech on Wednesday evening called for restraint and urged the protesters to wait patiently until the Supreme Court verdict is delivered on the quota issue.

bd-pratidin/GR