More than 500 people, including opposition leaders, have been arrested over days of clashes in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka sparked by protests against job quotas, according to the police.

“At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain said.

“They include some BNP leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

The detainees included the BNP’s third-most senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and its spokesperson Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, he said.

A former national football captain turned senior BNP figure, Aminul Huq, was also held, he added.

Mia Golam Parwar, the general secretary of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was also arrested, Hossain said.

According to him, at least three policemen had been killed during the unrest in the capital and about 1,000 injured, at least 60 of them critically.

BNP spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman said that nationwide, “several hundred BNP leaders and activists were arrested in the past few days.”