Not sure how you are blaming the massive countrywide internet outage on the protesters. It was literally announced by the government that they were shutting everything down to control the movement.
And yes we know that internet was shut by the government, but we had a day of burning overhead optical fiber that serves as the backbone for many peoples home internet connections.
My team of network engineers was brought in by some companies to try and reroute and stabilize the country’s infrastructure before the full shut down.
And when the internet is turned back on, there are the unlucky ones such as us who have to debug the remaining issues and asses the damage of a burnt central node that all ISPs connect through.
I'm inclined to believe it, but let's be honest: protesters always say that. From their point of view that's how it always is and they are never in the wrong. Statistically it's very unlikely.
The students reacted when the pm threw a attacking comment toward them, and they were still peaceful in their reaction. Then then student wing of the party started attacking and things got violent