Bangladesh mostly restored telecommunications services on Wednesday; however, internet connections were delayed and social media remained prohibited, days after over 150 people were killed in protests against government employment policy.
The country has remained generally peaceful since Sunday, when the Supreme Court reduced reserves for various categories to 7%, overturning a high court decision that reinstated a 56% quota in government employment that had been eliminated in 2018.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced on Tuesday that it will follow the Supreme Court's verdict.
As protests over the quotas, which included a 30% reserve for family members of independence fighters from the 1971 war, subsided, the government began relaxing the curfew imposed last week.
Restrictions will be lifted for seven hours on Wednesday, and offices will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., authorities stated.
Residents of the capital, Dhaka, were visible on the streets on Wednesday morning as they made their way to work, with public buses also operating in certain areas, in stark contrast to the city's deadly confrontations last week.
Protesting students have set the government a new 48-hour deadline to meet four more criteria from an eight-point list of demands, stating that they will announce future measures once that deadline expires on Thursday.
"We want the government to meet our four-point demand, including restoration of the internet, withdrawal of police from campuses, and opening universities (which have been closed for a week)," Nahid Islam, the protest's coordinator, stated.
Protests have shaken the South Asian nation of 170 million since the high court decision last month, which left fewer than half of the government jobs accessible on merit in a country where over 32 million young people are unemployed or out of school.
Demonstrations erupted after Hasina refused to comply with the demonstrators' demands, labeling them "razakar.".
This week, Hasina blamed the violence on her political opponents and promised to withdraw the curfew "whenever the situation improves."
The major opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has denied involvement in the violence.