A rickshaw driver drove through thick smoke as protesters set fire to a shopping mall during a rally against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
Rajib Dar/Associated Press
hide title
Switch title
Rajib Dar/Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Broadband and mobile data services were cut across Bangladesh on Monday as anti-government protesters vowed to march to the capital and demand the resignation of the prime minister, following a weekend of violence that left dozens dead, according to military reports. Fang ordered an indefinite curfew.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is facing her biggest political challenge since winning a fourth term in January in elections boycotted by the main opposition party.
The demonstrations began as students sought an end to a government job quota system, but clashes with police and pro-government activists escalated into violence that left more than 200 people dead last month. That sparked more protests demanding government accountability, which have grown into calls for Prime Minister Hasina to step down.
At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, were killed in clashes in the capital on Sunday, the country’s main Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo reported. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.
Authorities first shut down mobile internet on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while broadband began to stop working late Monday morning. This is the second time the country has experienced an internet outage since protests turned deadly in July.
The military-imposed curfew came into effect on Sunday night and covers Dhaka and other divisional headquarters. The government had earlier imposed a curfew in the capital and elsewhere, with some exceptions.
The government also declared a holiday from Monday to Wednesday. The courts will be closed indefinitely. Mobile internet services were cut off on Monday, with Facebook and messaging apps including WhatsApp inaccessible.
Bangladesh has previously shut down internet services in areas affected by protests as a measure to suppress opposition dissent. Internet watchdog Access Now said the country recorded three shutdowns in 2023, all of which overlapped with opposition rallies and were limited to one city or region. This comes after six closures in 2022.
Hasina said the protesters engaging in “vandalism” and vandalism were no longer students but criminals and she said the people should deal with them with an iron hand.
The prime minister’s ruling Awami League party said calls for her resignation showed the protests had 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 also led to the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities briefly imposed a shooting curfew.
Over the weekend, protesters called for “non-cooperation”, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to go to work on Sundays, the working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories are open, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities face challenges getting to work.
The protests began last month with students demanding an end to a quota system that reserves 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans of Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.
As violence reaches its peak, the country’s highest court has ruled that quotas for veterans must be cut to 5%, with 93% of jobs to be distributed on the basis of merit. The remaining 2% will be reserved for minorities, transgender people and people with disabilities. The government accepted the decision, but protesters continued to demand accountability for violence they accused the government of using force.
Hasina’s government accused the opposition and its student wing of inciting the violence, and some state-run institutions were set on fire or vandalized.
The main opposition party’s secretary-general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, reiterated his call for the government to step down to stop the chaos.
Hasina offered to speak to student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator declined and announced a single request for her resignation. Hasina reiterated her pledge to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down as long as the protesters wanted to.
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for more than 15 years. She returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in an election in January but faced resistance from her main opponents.
