Mobile internet is likely to be restored across the country around 3:00pm today after almost 10 days of outage, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said today.

He made the remark at a briefing after meeting with mobile operators at BTRC Bhaban in the capital this morning.

He also announced that 5GB internet will be given for free to all users for three days after connection is restored.

On July 17, the government shut down mobile internet. Palak said it was "in light of the current crisis in the country and to stop the spread of fake news on social media."

The next day, the DDM building was torched. Around 8:00pm, officials of the Internet Service Providers Association of Bangladesh said the fire might have cut 30-40 percent of the bandwidth supply, leaving some users disconnected and many with slow internet.

However, officials of internet service providers said this would disrupt partial internet traffic. An hour later, the entire Bangladesh was without internet.

The government reopened broadband internet in selected areas on July 23 and restored connections on a trial basis nationwide the next day.

Since the start of July, students and job seekers have been protesting the reinstatement of the quota system in government jobs. 

On June 5, the High Court effectively reinstated the quota system by declaring illegal a 2018 government circular that abolished it.

The Supreme Court on July 10 issued a status quo on the HC verdict.

 The students' movement for reform to the quota system in government jobs had turned violent after protesters were attacked in Dhaka University on Monday, July 15, and the situation escalated with clashes between the protesters on one side, and law enforcers and Chhatra League men on the other.