Bangladesh internet goes dark as growing protests kill 39

(Bloomberg) — Bangladesh is suffering a nationwide internet shutdown amid clashes between students and police over a government job quota that some reports have left at least 39 people dead.

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Network data showed an Internet blackout that began Thursday, monitoring service NetBlocks on X said. The outage is not related to global Internet issues affecting banks, airlines and other industries that began Thursday in the U.S. with interruptions linked to Microsoft Corp. services.

In Bangladesh, student protesters angered by the government’s employment quota policy attempted to shut down transport networks and businesses after authorities closed all universities.

AFP reported that 39 people have been killed in the clashes so far and police in the capital, Dhaka, have banned all public demonstrations. The government did not comment on the reported death toll or the outages.

There were reports of clashes on Friday in parts of the capital Dhaka, with internet shutdowns affecting ATM services and mobile money companies. According to Somoy TV, police also detained Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The protests pose a challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who extended her grip on power for a fourth consecutive term in elections earlier this year. If the demonstrations continue, they could further slow the economy as Bangladesh seeks funds from creditors and the International Monetary Fund to shore up dwindling foreign exchange reserves.

Local police said protesters set fire to several government buildings, including the state broadcaster, the national disaster management agency and a toll plaza. Hackers defaced the official website of the Bangladesh police with messages describing the protest as “a war for justice, freedom and our future”.

“The situation in Bangladesh is fragile and getting worse,” said Dr. Smruti Pattanaik, senior research fellow at the New Delhi-based Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies. “The administration should seriously pursue offering dialogue with students, and ultimately, statements by politicians who belittle students will not help the situation.”

The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladeshi exports and a vocal critic of Hasina’s government, condemned the violence.

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“We need to make sure that any kind of free speech occurs safely and that people are free from violence,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington on Thursday. “That’s something we continue to pay close attention to.”

Neighboring India described it as an “internal matter of Bangladesh,” according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, who spoke to reporters on Friday. “We are aware that the government has taken some measures in relation to the protests, but we are in contact with our population.”

Student frustrations centered on a policy that reserves 30 percent of government jobs for family members of veterans of Pakistan’s 1971 war of independence, which critics say has been abused. Anger also stems from persistently high youth unemployment, which is around 40%, according to the latest census.

Hasina sought to reassure students, telling them to have faith in the courts while a case against the quota system is being deliberated. But she also vowed to come down hard on those responsible for the violence, saying in a televised speech on Wednesday that a judicial commission would investigate the turmoil.

The Associated Press said the country’s Supreme Court will consider the job quota case on Sunday. The court initially suspended a ruling by a lower court that reinstated the quota system, triggering the protests last month.

Protesters say the quota system excluded new job seekers in favor of supporters of Hasina, whose party led the movement to secede from Pakistan. They want the system to be replaced with a merit-based system.

Government jobs are highly sought after in Bangladesh and have taken on greater importance as the economy struggles to recover following the pandemic and years of strong growth. The protests, largely led by students, turned violent earlier this week and Bangladesh’s main opposition party joined the demonstrations.

The government sent paramilitary troops to Dhaka to reinforce security. “This is one of the most difficult challenges Sheikh Hasina has ever faced. The streets are converging with discontent,” said Harsh Pant, professor of International Relations at Kings College, London. “But the opposition will not let this go and that depends on how it manages the unity of the opposition and the anger in the streets.”

–With assistance from Arun Devnath, Swati Gupta and Sudhi Ranjan Sen.

(Updates with more details and comments)

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