Bangladesh student protests: Death toll at 50, TV news in country goes off-air

The death toll due to the ongoing student protests againstquotas for government jobs in Bangladesh has climbed to 50. The news agency Reuters reported on Friday (July 19) that TV news channels in the countrywere off-air and telecommunications were widely disrupted. There was fresh violence in some parts of Bangladeshand police were using tear gas to disperse protesters, Reuters reported.

Hundreds of people have been injured in the protests. In the latest news, the police banned all public rallies in Dhaka and arrestedRuhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, a leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)

Although the agitation was sparked by students' discontentment against the controversial quota system.Some analysts have said that tough economic conditions, including high inflation and rising unemployment, were providing fuel to the fire.

The disruption in news, mobile services

On Thursday, authoritiescut some mobile services to try to quell the unrestbut the disruption spread across the country on Friday morning. Telephone calls from abroadwere mostly not getting connected and calls through the internet could not be completed, Reuters reported.

Apart from TV news channels going off-air, the websites of several Bangladesh-based newspaperswere not updated on Friday morning and their social media handles were also not active.

Only some voice calls were working in the country and there was no mobile data or broadband on Friday morning, the news agency reported and pointed out that SMSeswere not going through.

Govt websites hacked

The websites of Bangladesh's central bank,the prime minister's office and police appeared to have been hacked by a group calling itself "THE R3SISTANC3". In a message, the group said, "Operation HuntDown, Stop Killing Students.It's not a protest anymore, it's a war now."

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"The government has shut down the internet to silence us and hide their actions. We need to stay informed about what is happening on the ground. Thespirit of our students remains unbroken," the group said in another message.

Govt willing to hold talks with protesters

The ongoing protestshave been the biggest since Sheikh Hasina was re-elected as prime minister earlier this year.Nearly a fifth of the country's 170 million population is out of work or education.

Student protestersare demanding the state stop setting aside 30 per centof government jobs for the families of people who fought in the 1971 war.

PM Hasina's governmentscrapped the quota system in 2018, but a high court reinstated it in June.The government appealed against the verdict and the Supreme Court suspended the high court order, pending a hearing of the government’s appeal on August 7.

On Thursday, the government saidit was willing to hold talks with the protesters but the demonstrators refused, saying, "Discussions and opening fire do not go hand in hand".

(With inputs from agencies)