“We continue to call for calm and restraint and urge all parties to respect the rights to peaceful assembly and expression,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told the daily briefing at UN headquarters in New York.
“We urge security services to protect those on the streets in Dhaka and other cities in Bangladesh,” he added.
He also stressed the importance of a peaceful, orderly and democratic transition, adding that the The UN stands in full solidarity with the people of Bangladesh at the moment.
“We call for full respect for their democratic and human rights,” he said, also stressing the need for a full, independent, impartial and transparent investigation into all acts of violence.
More than 300 people, many of them children, are said to have been killed since the student-led protests broke out, and more than 20,000 injured. The bloodshed was some of the worst ever seen in Bangladesh.
The unrest began in July with student protests against quotas for civil service jobs. Although the plan was withdrawn, protests broke out again last week, with the main demand being that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down and that those responsible for the violent suppression of the demonstrations be held to account.
Ms Hasina had been in power since January 2009. She previously led the country from 1996 to 2001.
According to media reports, her departure from Bangladesh was greeted with great jubilation in much of the country.
There were also reports of looting and arson at the prime minister’s residence; a museum dedicated to the country’s first president and Ms Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; and homes of senior government officials.
Bangladesh’s army chief announced in a nationally televised address after her departure that an interim government would be formed, but no further details were given.
