Dhaka:

The mobile internet connection was restored in Bangladesh on Sunday, 10 days after it was restricted by the authorities across the country to stop the spread of fake news on social media amidst the deadly nationwide violence over reforms in the quota system in government jobs.

Addressing a press conference, Minister of State for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Zunaid Ahmed Palak announced that 5GB internet will be given for free to all users for three days after the connection is restored, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

The mobile internet connectivity was restored at around 3:00 pm local time.

Users of Robi, Grameenphone, Banglalink and other operators in Dhaka said they could access the internet through their phones around 3 pm, the report said.

On July 18, the government shut down mobile internet following the escalation of violence across the country.

At the time, Palak said the decision was made “in light of the current crisis in the country and to stop the spread of fake news on social media”, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

The next day, amid escalating violence, the Department of Disaster Management building was set on fire, adjacent to which was a data centre. While Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) officials said that the fire might cut 30-40 per cent of the bandwidth supply, broadband internet connection for the entire country was disrupted within an hour.

Bangladesh stayed disconnected from both broadband and mobile internet between July 18 and July 23, when broadband internet was restored in stages.

However, mobile internet remained unavailable until Sunday.

Regarding access to social media platforms, Palak said the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has sent letters to authorities of social media platforms, including Facebook, Tiktok and YouTube.

“Their representatives have to come to Dhaka by July 31 to give explanations. Then, after discussing it with them, we will make a decision,” he said.

The BTRC is responsible for regulating all matters related to telecommunications in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh witnessed violent clashes between the police and mostly student protesters demanding an end to a controversial quota system that reserved 30 per cent of government jobs for relatives of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971.

The internet and mobile services were snapped following the countrywide violence.

On Monday last, the supreme court slashed the veterans’ quota to just 5 per cent. Thus, 93 per cent of civil service jobs will be merit-based while the remaining 2 per cent reserved for members of ethnic minorities, transgender and physically challenged people.

The violence has reportedly killed more than 100 people, according to local newspapers. However, there are no official figures available for deaths.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday defended her decision to enforce a curfew with a shoot-on-sight order following the clashes, asserting that tough measures were taken to ensure the security of the lives and properties of the people.

Bangladesh crawled back to normalcy on Wednesday with rush hour traffic returning to streets in the capital, and limited reopening of banks, garment factories and internet services.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Garment factories and banks reopened in Bangladesh Wednesday after authorities eased a curfew imposed to contain deadly clashes sparked by student protests over civil service employment quotas.

Last week’s violence killed at least 186 people, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, during some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

Thousands of troops are patrolling cities around the South Asian country to keep order, and most Bangladeshis remain without internet nearly a week after a nationwide shutdown was imposed.

But with calm returning to the streets after several days of unbridled mayhem, the country’s economically vital textile factories resumed operations after government clearance.

“We were worried about the future of our company,” 40-year-old factory worker Khatun, who gave only one name, told AFP.

Despite the disruption, Khatun said she supported the demands of student protesters to reform government hiring rules and was shocked by last week’s violence.

“The government should implement all their demands,” she said. “A lot of them were killed. They sacrificed for future generations.”

The garment industry generates $50 billion in yearly export revenue for Bangladesh, employing millions of young women to sew clothes for H&M, Zara, Gap and other leading international brands.

A spokesperson for the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association told AFP that garment factories had resumed business “across the country”.

Hasina’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan agreed to exempt textile workers from an ongoing curfew to allow them to return to work, the peak body’s spokesman said.

The curfew was eased Wednesday to allow some commerce to resume but remains in effect for most Bangladeshis for 19 hours each day.

Banks, the stock exchange in the capital Dhaka, and some government offices also opened between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm to match the daily break in the stay-home order, government spokesman Shibli Sadiq told AFP.

‘So much blood’ 

The student group which led this month’s protests has suspended demonstrations until at least Friday, with one leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.

Police have arrested at least 2,500 people since the violence began last week.

Hasina’s government says the stay-home order will be relaxed further as the situation improves.

Broadband internet was being gradually restored on Tuesday evening but mobile internet — a key communication method for protest organisers — remained inoperative.

Internet connectivity across Bangladesh was still around 20 percent of normal levels, according to data published by US-based monitor Netblocks.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the June reintroduction of the quota scheme — halted since 2018 — deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s Awami League.

The Supreme Court on Sunday cut the number of reserved jobs but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina, 76, has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)