Bangladesh Orders Mobile Internet Shutdown To Quell Protests

(Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh tightened a nationwide curfew and ordered a shutdown of mobile Internet services for the second time in three weeks as renewed protests over the weekend led to more than 30 deaths. 

The curfew, starting at 6 p.m. local time, will continue until further notice, according to the home ministry. The measures were imposed after a new wave of violence on Sunday, where protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina clashed with pro-government supporters. The confrontations led to 32 deaths across 13 districts, according to the Prothom Alo newspaper. 

On Sunday, a group set vehicles on fire at a government-run medical university and hospital near the Shahbag square, a popular demonstration site in the capital. Most shops are shut and public transport disappeared from Dhaka streets as the violence spread. 

The protesters also launched a disobedience movement, urged citizens to withhold tax or utility bills and asked overseas workers to stop sending remittances home, as part of the nationwide campaign to pressure Hasina and her cabinet to step down. 

The ruling Awami League and its supporters held marches across the country on Sunday, seeking to maintain their position against the protesters, according to the party’s General Secretary Obaidul Quader.

Read: Bangladesh Hit by New Protests as Calls Grow for Hasina to Quit

The unrest stemmed from a controversial government jobs quota system, and demonstrations forced authorities to impose a curfew as well as a near-complete blackout of the mobile Internet for 11 straight days in July. Those protests left some 200 people dead.  

Curfews and the Internet shutdown is estimated to have a $10 billion impact on the economy with costs expected to climb further, Zaved Akhtar, president of the Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said late last month. The FCCI represents investors from 35 countries.

Hasina has offered to meet protest coordinators and ordered the release of detained students as crowds swarmed streets across Dhaka on Saturday. “My doors are open. I want to sit with protesters and listen to them. I don’t want any conflict,” she said.

(Updates with details throughout. A previous version corrected day of week in third paragraph.)

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