A screenshot from a Bangladesh government official website shows what appears to be a message from a hacker group calling itself “THE R3SISTANC3” amid a surge in student protests in Bangladesh. The image was taken from the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office website on July 19, 2024. Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office website/via Reuters
Violent student protests in Bangladesh on Friday forced television news channels off the air and caused widespread disruptions to communications networks.
Nearly 20 people were killed this week in protests against a controversial government quota system.
The French news agency AFP reported that the death toll from Thursday’s riots had risen to 32.
The nationwide protests, the largest since President Hasina was re-elected earlier this year, have been fuelled by high youth unemployment.
Nearly a fifth of the country’s 170 million people are unemployed or uneducated.
Reuters reported 13 people had died, in addition to the six killed earlier this week, but the higher figure could not immediately be confirmed.
A Reuters photographer said fresh riots broke out in parts of the country on Friday, with police using tear gas to disperse protesters.
An Indian business daily reported that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government was “forced” to deploy the army late on Thursday to “maintain order”, although Reuters could not independently verify the information.
Meanwhile, anti-quota protesters also demonstrated in Times Square in New York City.
Some analysts say tough economic conditions, including high inflation, rising unemployment and dwindling foreign exchange reserves, are adding fuel to the fire.
The protests have also opened up old and tenuous political rifts between those who fought for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, such as Hasina’s Awami League, and those she has accused of collaborating with Islamabad, calling the protesters “razakars”.
Authorities cut off some mobile phone services on Thursday to quell the unrest, but chaos spread across the country on Friday morning, Reuters witnesses in Dhaka and New Delhi said.
Almost no calls from overseas went through, and calls made over the internet could not be completed.
The websites of several Bangladesh-based newspapers had not been updated on Friday morning and their social media handles were not active.
A Reuters photographer in Dhaka said only some voice calls were working across the country on Friday morning and mobile data and broadband were unavailable, adding that even text messages between mobile phones did not work.
News TV stations and state broadcaster BTV went off the air, but entertainment channels continued broadcasting normally, a Reuters witness said.
Witnesses said some news channels displayed messages saying they were unable to broadcast due to technical reasons but programmes would resume soon.
Website gets hacked
The streets of the capital Dhaka were deserted on Friday, a weekly holiday in the country.
He said traffic was light, there were few rickshaw pullers on the roads and sparse crowds near the vegetable and fish markets.A protest rally was called at around 8 a.m. at the Central Mosque.
The official websites of Bangladesh Central Bank, the Prime Minister’s Office and the police appear to have been hacked by a group calling itself “THE R3SISTANC3.”
“Stop hunting students, stop killing students,” reads the identical message on both sites, adding in bright red font: “This is no longer a protest, it’s a war.”
“Get ready, the fight for justice has begun,” another message read at the bottom of the page.
“The government has shut down the internet to silence our voices and hide its actions. We need to stay informed of what is happening on the ground,” he said, adding that “the spirit of our students remains unwavering.”
The protesters are demanding that the government end its practice of reserving 30 percent of government jobs for the families of those who fought in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The Hasina government abolished the quota system in 2018, but the High Court reinstated it last month. The government appealed the ruling, and the Supreme Court on August 7 suspended the High Court order pending the government’s appeal.
Hasina’s government said on Thursday it was ready to hold talks with the protesters, but the protesters rejected the idea, saying “talks and firing are mutually exclusive.”
Hundreds of people were injured this week when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who set fire to vehicles, a police station and other facilities.
The worst protests took place on Dhaka’s main university campus, with more violent demonstrations taking place in other parts of the city on Thursday.
Bangladesh has been suffering from the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war and secured a $4.7 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund in January 2023.
The IMF completed a second review of Bangladesh’s bailout program in June this year, making the country immediately available about $928 million in loans to support the economy and about $220 million to combat climate change.
(Quoted from Reuters)
