The Bangladeshi Minister for Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, announced Sunday that 4G mobile internet services would be restored after an 11-day nationwide blackout. However, access to social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube would remain restricted.
The blackout was implemented on July 17 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in response to widespread student protests. These demonstrations were triggered by the Bangladesh High Court’s decision to reinstate a quota system, previously abolished in 2018, which reserved 30% of government jobs for descendants of veterans who fought in the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. The reintroduction of this quota system angered students, particularly in light of the country’s unemployment crisis affecting an estimated 18 million young Bangladeshis. The government justified the internet shutdown as a measure necessary “to stop the spread of fake news on social media” during the crisis.
The protests, which began peacefully on university campuses, quickly escalated into violent confrontations. Clashes between students and police intensified, with law enforcement using tear gas, rubber bullets, and smoke grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters. The situation became more volatile when, according to Law Minister Anisul Huq, armed cadres of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami allegedly joined the protests.
The violence resulted in attacks on several government installations, including the headquarters of the state-run Bangladesh Television, two toll plazas, two metro rail stations in Dhaka, and the torching of hundreds of government-owned vehicles. In a particularly significant incident, the Department of Disaster Management building was set on fire, affecting an adjacent data center. This event led to a disruption of 30-40% of the country’s bandwidth supply, as reported by the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh.
The country experienced a complete internet blackout from July 18 to July 23, with both broadband and mobile internet services disrupted. The Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association has called for an independent inquiry into the causes of this unprecedented five-day internet blackout, expressing skepticism about the government’s explanation that damaged infrastructure alone caused the outage.
Official casualty figures from the recent unrest were finally disclosed by Bangladesh’s Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Sunday. Speaking in Dhaka, Khan revealed that at least 147 lives were lost during the turmoil sparked by student demonstrations against government job quotas. The minister stated that the deceased included a cross-section of society: students, law enforcement officers, activists, and individuals from various walks of life. Khan emphasized that investigations were ongoing to ascertain the full extent of the casualties. The scale of the violence was further underscored by an Associated Press reporter who witnessed security forces using rubber bullets and tear gas against a crowd of more than 1,000 protesters outside the Bangladesh Television headquarters, leaving streets littered with bullets and marked by blood.
Students have put forward a list of demands, including investigations into the killings of protesters, arrest and trial of those responsible, financial assistance for victims’ families, reforms in the education system, an end to political harassment, and the withdrawal of cases against participants in the quota reform movement.
In response to the protests, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has modified the quota system, reducing the veterans’ quota from 30% to 5% and allocating 93% of government jobs based on merit. The remaining 2% is reserved for ethnic minorities, transgender individuals, and people with disabilities. This ruling represents a partial victory for the protesters, although it remains to be seen whether it will fully address their concerns and calm the unrest.
