People in the Dhaka city were seen buying newspapers, watching television or listening to radio for updated information on Friday and Saturday as the country had been under complete internet blackout since Thursday night amid the countrywide unrest over the ongoing quota reform movement.
Several Dhaka city residents, however, reported on Saturday that they could not purchase newspapers聽 as all newspapers were either sold out or street vendors could not be found in areas, including Shahbagh and Farmgate, amid the countrywide curfew started from midnight past Friday.
Jalal Bhuiyan, who delivers newspapers in the Mirpur area, said, 鈥業 purchased copies amounting to Tk 700 and all were sold in less than an hour.鈥�
Abdul Mannan, chairman of Dhaka Newspaper Hawkers Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd, said that newspaper sales in the capital increased up to 10 per cent in the past two days.
Several people living outside Dhaka also reported that newspaper did not reach their respective areas on Friday and Saturday, leaving them solely dependent on mobile phone as a means of getting information.
Mannan confirmed that they could deliver newspapers only to southern districts, including Feni, Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Cumilla and Chattogram, on Saturday.聽
He also said that several newspaper hawkers faced outrages of the ordinary people in a few areas as they believed the media, especially television and radio, was hiding information about actual numbers of deaths and injured.聽聽聽聽聽聽
Raju Mukit, a resident of Greenroad in Dhaka, said on Saturday that he purchased two newspapers in the morning after almost two years as he had no television set at home.聽
Nilufar Begum, another resident of Hatirpool, said that she went to Shahbagh at about 1:00pm on Saturday to buy newspaper but the sale centre was closed.聽
鈥業 am not getting any information about the ongoing situation of the country. Now, I am planning to get a dish line,鈥� she said.聽
A shop worker in Kalabagan said that he tried to listen to radio but most of the time he get to listen songs and only a few update.聽
A resident in the Jurain area said that television channels are mostly providing news on government decisions not on the ongoing situation of the country.
State minister for posts, telecommunications, and information technology, Zunaid Ahmed, meanwhile, in a mobile text message on Saturday said, 鈥業nternet services across the country are disrupted as data centres and cables have been burnt in a fire set by miscreants and the service restoration will take time.鈥�
On July 18, Palak said that mobile internet services were temporarily shut down in response to the unrest sparked by ongoing protests demanding reforms to the quota system in government jobs.聽
