Bangladesh Curfew: Deadly Clashes Over Job Quotas

Bangladesh police imposed a curfew and internet blackout in Dhaka amid student-led protests against job quotas. The clashes resulted in at least 110 deaths and thousands of injuries. The government deployed the military and restricted movement to control the unrest, which has halted normal life in the capital.

Bangladesh soldiers patrolled the deserted streets of Dhaka on Saturday and set up roadblocks during a curfew meant to quell deadly student-led protests over government job quotas, which have resulted in at least 110 deaths this week. Police have suspended internet and text message services since Thursday to crack down on protests continuing despite a public gathering ban.

Telephone calls mostly failed to connect, while Bangladeshi media websites did not update. 'Taking nearly 170 million people off the Internet is a drastic step, unprecedented since the Egyptian revolution of 2011,' said John Heidemann, chief scientist of networking and cybersecurity at USC's Viterbi Information Sciences Institute.

The protests, the largest since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's re-election, were fueled by high youth unemployment. Hasina's government imposed the curfew and called in the military as the death toll climbed, easing it briefly on Saturday for essential chores. The unrest erupted over a controversial quota system for government jobs that a court reinstated after being scrapped in 2018.