Internet restored in Bangladesh as protesters plan march on capital

Broadband internet and mobile data services have been restored across Bangladesh as anti-government protesters vowed to march to the capital to demand the Prime Minister’s resignation.

The move follows a weekend of violence that left dozens of people dead, as the military ordered an indefinite curfew.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is facing her biggest political challenge since winning a fourth term in an election boycotted by the main opposition parties in January.

The demonstrations began with students seeking to end a quota system for government jobs, but clashes with police and pro-government activists escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead last month.

That triggered more protests demanding accountability from the government, which have grown into calls for Prime Minister Hasina to step down.

At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country’s leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.

Authorities first shut off mobile internet on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while the broadband internet stopped working late on Monday morning. This marked the second internet blackout in the country after the protests turned deadly in July.

The military-imposed curfew went into effect on Sunday night and covered Dhaka and other divisional and district headquarters.

The government had earlier imposed a curfew with some exceptions in the capital and elsewhere.

The government also announced a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. Courts were to be closed indefinitely. Mobile internet services were cut off, and Facebook and messaging apps, including WhatsApp, were inaccessible on Monday.

Bangladesh has previously shut down internet services in areas affected by protests, using it as a measure to suppress dissent by opposition parties.

Internet watchdog Access Now said it recorded three shutdowns in the country in 2023, all of which overlapped with opposition rallies and were limited in scope to one city or district. That came after six shutdowns in 2022.

Ms Hasina said the protesters who engaged in “sabotage” and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

The ruling Awami League party said the demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation showed that the protests have been taken over by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the now-banned Jamaat-e-Islami party.

At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.

Over the weekend, protesters called for a “non-cooperation” effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to their jobs.

The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30% of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

As the violence crested, the country’s supreme court ruled that the veterans’ quota must be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be allocated on merit.

The remaining 2% will be set aside for members of ethnic minorities and transgender and disabled people.

The government accepted the decision, but protesters have continued demanding accountability for the violence they blame on the government’s use of force.

Ms Hasina’s administration has blamed the opposition parties and their student wings for instigating the violence in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalised.

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to step down to stop the chaos.

Ms Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and demanded her resignation.

She repeated her pledges to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.

The protests have become a major challenge for Ms Hasina, who has ruled the country for more than 15 years. She returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by her main opponents.