Ministers in Bangladesh claim protesters set fire to a data center and hampered Internet connectivity in the country amid violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces.
Protests over the allocation of government jobs have been raging in Bangladesh throughout July, and turned violent last week, with police firing on the crowds. It is thought up to 200 people have been killed.
On July 18, the government announced it was blocking mobile Internet access, shutting down news broadcasts, and access to social media in light of the protests.
Broadband was only restored to selected areas and business sectors five days later, and problems with mobile Internet access continued. However, the government is keen to pin part of the blame for this on the protesters themselves.
In an update on Sunday, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for post, telecommunications, and information technology, said staff at three data centers in the Mohakhali area of Dhaka, including the Khawaja Tower, were forced to shut down their servers because they feared being attacked.
“On July 17 and 18, we suspended Internet services on a limited scale in some areas for security reasons. However, on July 18, from 3pm to 9pm, widespread destruction ensued,” Palak said in comments reported by JagoNews24. "During this time, the data center on the ground floor of the Mohakhali Relief Rehabilitation Centre was completely burnt down.
“Data and technical analysis indicate that several identified terrorists carried out these planned attacks. Those responsible have been arrested, and law enforcement has gathered information from them.”
He added that Internet cables had been cut across the country. "Hundreds of kilometers of fiber cables, those above ground, were burnt and cut by the terrorists," Palak said. "Moreover, fiber optic cables brought to Dhaka via Cox's Bazar-Chittagong, which were pulled over due to road and bridge repairs, were also burnt. It took two days after the incident to identify where such cable disconnections had occurred, and they were repaired under the supervision of the army."
In separate comments, Mohammad Ali Arafat, state minister for information and broadcasting, said protestors from rival political party BNP-Jamaat were responsible for burning down the data center.
"In the absence of Internet, we have fallen in trouble,” he said. “We could not communicate with the outside world.”
However, doubt has been cast on these claims, with reporters from the Associated Press unable to verify whether a data center had been burned down.
Protesters had been demanding an end to the quota system that reserves 30 percent of government jobs for relatives of veterans in Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
On July 23, the Bangladesh Supreme Court ordered a major reform of the quota system. The curfew has also since been relaxed.
