Internet was shutdown in Bangladesh on ‘verbal’ orders from Palak: probe report

An investigation committee formed to determine who ordered the internet shutdown during the violent Anti-discrimination Student Movement has "preliminarily" found that the instructions came from former state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak.

The investigation revealed that operators shut down internet services under the directives of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Chairman Md Mohiuddin Ahmed, following Palak's verbal instructions, the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology said in a press release on Tuesday.

The inquiry also confirmed the internet shutdown had no connection to the fire at the data centre during that period.

The mobile internet service was first shut down on Jul 17 amid nationwide unrest and violence during the ‘Complete Shutdown’ programme called by the Anti-discrimination Student Movement.

The service was restored on Jul 28. During this period, from Jul 18 to 23, broadband internet was also suspended, cutting off the country from the global network.

Although internet services were later restored, access to platforms like Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram was not available until the afternoon of Jul 31.

At that time, former state minister Palak claimed the internet outage was caused by damage to the data centre due to the violence.

On Aug 2, mobile internet services, including Facebook and Telegram, were suspended for nearly seven hours.

Most recently, on Aug 5, broadband internet services were shut down at around 11am, and mobile internet services were already down since the previous day. Both services were restored later in the afternoon.

The ministry's press release highlighted that the repeated shutdown of mobile and broadband internet services during the protest disrupted public life and tarnished Bangladesh's image globally.

In response, a seven-member committee was formed under the directive of Md Nahid Islam, an advisor to the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, to investigate the reasons and those involved in the nationwide internet shutdowns.

The committee has now submitted its preliminary report, as mentioned in the press release.

According to the report, the shutdown and subsequent restoration of mobile internet were carried out without the administrative approval of the Post and Telecommunications Division.

The report also claims that the shutdown and restoration of mobile internet services from Jul 17 to 28 and on Aug 5 were carried out under the directives of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre, or NTMC, which falls under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The report says, "By falsely associating the internet shutdown with the damage caused to the data centre by the fire, former state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak misled the nation and engaged in deception."

Palak had previously said the internet was shut down because "when the Disaster Management Building in Mohakhali was set on fire, the cables of various internet service providers located on the street were damaged, along with several data centres, leading to the nationwide internet outage."

As a result, Bangladesh experienced one of its longest internet blackouts since entering the digital age, severely disrupting a society that had grown accustomed to digital services.

Further investigations into the matter are ongoing, according to the ministry's press release.