‘It’s war now’: As Bangladesh quota protests escalate, what’s next?

The websites for PM Hasina’s office, Bangladesh’s central bank have been hacked amid a telecommunications blackout.

Bangladesh has announced a nationwide curfew that will come into effect at the beginning of Saturday amid a telecommunications blackout that has cut the country of 170 million people off from the rest of the world as clashes between students and security forces have intensified.

Faisal Mahmud, reporting for Al Jazeera from Dhaka, said the army has been deployed on the streets of the Bangladeshi capital.

The government has banned public rallies in Dhaka, where buildings were torched during the clashes on Thursday. Students are protesting against quotas for government jobs. At least 19 people had died in the violence this week before Friday. Mahmud said many more were killed in fighting on Friday.

Even after the government shut down phone and internet connectivity, the protests took new forms – including apparent hacking attacks on top government websites.

Here’s more about the protests and where they are headed next.

The protests began weeks ago, but violence rose at the start of this week after student protesters were attacked by activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party.

After protesters refused to back down, the government on Wednesday ordered the closure of all universities — the epicentres of the movement against the quotas. But students refused to vacate the campuses in a tense standoff.

Then, on Thursday, that tension exploded into deadly violence. Thousands of students clashed with armed police in Dhaka. During these clashes, 11 people were killed, including a bus driver and a student, police sources told Al Jazeera. The AFP