Bangladesh Restores Mobile Internet After 11-Day Blackout Aimed at Quelling Protests

Bangladesh Restores Mobile Internet After 11-Day Blackout Aimed at Quelling Protests

Bangladesh Restores Mobile Internet After 11-Day Blackout Aimed at Quelling Protests

"Meanwhile, the home minister reported that at least 147 people were killed during the violence related to government job quotas."

 

"Bangladesh has restored mobile internet services 11 days after a nationwide blackout was implemented to control deadly protests over government job quotas.

The South Asian country's 4G mobile internet services resumed on Sunday, following an announcement by Zunaid Ahmed Palak, the state minister for telecommunications and information communication technology."

"We have decided to restore 4G network connectivity from 3pm [09:00 GMT] today," announced the state minister following a meeting with internet service providers and other stakeholders in the capital, Dhaka.

However, access to social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube remains restricted. While broadband internet connectivity was restored on Tuesday, the majority of internet users in Bangladesh rely on mobile devices to access the internet.

On July 17, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government suspended mobile internet services, deployed the army, and imposed a curfew in response to mass protests. Tens of thousands of students took to the streets, demanding reforms to the quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

The protests, one of the most significant challenges during Hasina's 15-year tenure, remained largely peaceful until police and pro-government student groups attacked the demonstrators last week.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan announced on Sunday that at least 147 people were killed in the violence, marking the government's first official death toll. This came a day after the main protest group, Students Against Discrimination, reported a preliminary count of at least 266 deaths.

Speaking to reporters in Dhaka, Khan stated that the deceased included students, police, activists, and others from various professions. He added that further investigation is ongoing to determine the final death toll. Independent estimates suggest the number of casualties could exceed 200.

Home Minister Khan informed reporters that the police exercised restraint during the protests and only fired on demonstrators to protect government buildings. He also stated that some protesters were taken into custody by the police for their own safety.

"Despite the deaths of their fellow officers, they displayed remarkable patience," he stated. "However, when they saw that the properties could not be protected, the police were compelled to open fire."

Students have threatened further protests.

The students opposed to the quota system, which they consider discriminatory, began their peaceful protests after a High Court bench reinstated the quotas in June. These quotas had been abolished in 2018.

With approximately 18 million young Bangladeshis unemployed, according to government data, the decision to restore the quotas has deeply upset graduates facing a severe employment crisis. Critics argue that the quota system is used to fill public jobs with loyalists of the ruling Awami League party.

Amid the unrest, the country's Supreme Court reduced the 30 percent quota for veterans' descendants to 5 percent and limited the quotas for ethnic minorities, transgender people, and disabled people to 2 percent. However, the top court did not meet the protesters' demands to abolish the quotas entirely.

Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place, more than a week after they were imposed. Schools and other educational institutions remain closed until further notice.

In a bid to restore normalcy, the government relaxed the curfew for 11 hours (6am to 5pm) in Dhaka as of Sunday and set new timings for office work from 9 am to 3 pm for the next three days, according to the Home Ministry, the dpa news agency reported.

Meanwhile, a police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters, including at least half a dozen student leaders.

Members of Students Against Discrimination said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium, but vowed to renew it if their leaders are not freed.

The group’s chief Nahid Islam and others “should be freed and the cases against them must be withdrawn”, group member Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online briefing late on Saturday.