19/07/2026
One of the most damning decisions of the Hasina government during the July uprising was the internet shutdown and the lies told to cover it. On July 18, 2024, internet services went dark nationwide for the first time. Then, from midnight on July 19, two years ago today, a curfew was imposed across the country. The goal was to smother the movement and carry out mass killings while the nation couldn't see.
With connectivity cut, the scale of the violence couldn't reach the outside world in real time. Within a week, the death toll crossed two hundred, alongside mass arrests. Internet access slowly returned under pressure, though social media stayed blocked. When mobile internet finally came back after ten days, people learned how protesters had been gunned down while the country was kept in the dark. Outrage spread fast.
Even while cut off, students had kept organizing online where they could, coordinating the next steps of the movement. Once the images and videos from those blacked-out days surfaced, public anger only intensified and what followed was the collapse of the Hasina government.
