About 1,500 people died in protests that brought down Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina this year, and as many as 3,500 may have been forcibly abducted during her 15-year rule, interim leader Muhammad Yunus said on Sunday, Paralel.Az reports citing Reuters.

The protests, which began in July as a student-led movement against public sector job quotas, escalated into some of the deadliest unrest since Bangladeshi independence in 1971, forcing Hasina to flee to India.

"Every day, new names are being added to the list of martyrs,” Yunus said in an address to the nation marking 100 days of the interim government, pledging to prosecute those responsible for the violence.