A total of 56 Nepali students returned home from Bangladesh on Sunday after protests against the government turned violent in Dhaka and other parts of the country. They landed in Kathmandu on a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.

According to Amrit Bahadur Rai, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport at 11:30am.

“We were expecting 17 students, but 56 have arrived,” he said. “We have deployed officials from the ministry to the airport.”

Rai said the exact details are not yet known due to communication issues with the Nepali embassy in Bangladesh.

“The telephone connection there is poor, and the internet is completely down,” Rai said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday evening had said that approximately 800 Nepali students left Bangladesh for Nepal by air or via land border points as of Saturday.

Bangladesh witnessed violent agitation in the past week.

Bangladeshi students intensified their agitation against the quotas for government jobs, which included 30 percent reservation for the families of those who fought for independence from Pakistan.

The Bangladesh government has ordered all offices and institutions to stay closed for two days after over 120 people were killed this week during the protests, according to international news agencies.

In the capital city Dhaka, the epicentre of the protests, security forces have set up roadblocks to enforce a curfew.