Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign clashed with pro-government supporters Sunday, with eight people killed as mass rallies and violence erupted countrywide. 

Huge crowds of protesters, many wielding sticks, packed into Dhaka's central Shahbagh Square, with street battles in multiple sites as well as in other key cities, police said.

"There were clashes between students and the ruling party men," police inspector Al Helal told AFP, saying two young men were killed in Dhaka's Munshiganj district.

"One of the dead was hacked in his head and another had gunshot injuries."

Another policeman, who asked not to be named, said "the whole city has turned into a battleground", adding a crowd of several thousand protesters torched cars and motorcycles outside a hospital.

Police and doctors reported six more deaths in the northern districts of Pabna and Rangpur, as well in Magura in the west.

'Prepare bamboo sticks'

Asif Mahmud, one of the key protest leaders in a nationwide civil disobedience campaign, earlier asked supporters to be ready after rallies last month were crushed by police.

"Prepare bamboo sticks and liberate Bangladesh," he wrote on Facebook Sunday.

While the army stepped in to help restore order in the wake of earlier protests, some former military officers have since joined the student movement, and ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan turned his Facebook profile picture red in a show of support.

Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman spoke to officers at military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday, telling them the "Bangladesh Army is the symbol of trust of the people".

"It always stood by the people and will do so for the sake of people and in any need of the state," he said, according to an army statement issued late Saturday.

The statement did not give further details or explicitly say whether the army backed the protests.

Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem in July that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina's 15-year tenure.

Troops briefly restored order but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this week in an all-out non-cooperation movement aimed at paralysing the government.

On Saturday, when hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Dhaka, the police were largely bystanders.

'Live freely'

The protests have grown into a wider anti-government movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.

The mass movement includes people from all strata of Bangladesh society, including film stars, musicians and singers, and rap songs calling for people's support have spread widely on social media.

"It is no longer about job quotas," said Sakhawat, a young female protester who gave only one name, as she scrawled graffiti on a wall at a protest site in Dhaka, calling Hasina a "killer".

"What we want is that our next generation can live freely in the country."

A group of 47 manufacturers in the economically vital garment sector said Sunday that they stood in "solidarity" with the protesters.

"We cannot stand silent and watch the sad loss of innocent lives and people's demands go unheard", the joint statement read.

Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina's ruling Awami League, has called on party activists to gather "in every district" nationwide to show their support for the government.

'Take all preparations'

Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising the initial demonstrations, had earlier insisted it would hold rallies "peacefully".

But it also cautioned that "if anyone attacks us, we urge (all) to take all preparations."

Protests were held at entry points to Dhaka, blocking transport routes.

Students Against Discrimination have asked their compatriots to stop paying taxes and utility bills, and for government workers and labourers to strike.

Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of the quota scheme, which reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. Bangladesh's top court has since scaled it back.