The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) website, pmo.gov.bd, and other Bangladesh government websites under the gov.bd domain became temporarily inaccessible on Tuesday morning before services were restored.
The disruption was first noticed around 10:15am. It affected websites of ministries, divisions, and government agencies, preventing users from accessing online services and information. The websites became accessible again around 11:45am.
During the disruption, visitors attempting to access the websites were shown the message: "Error 503 Backend fetch failed," along with "Guru Meditation" and a Varnish cache server notice.
While the disruption was ongoing, Prime Minister's Adviser on Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Rehan Asif Asad said authorities were aware of the issue and that a technical team was working to restore the services.
He later said: "The disruption was caused by a power-related issue, and the services are expected to be restored soon."
Abdullah Al Jaber, director of Cyber 71, said the error usually indicates server maintenance or a problem with network or server connectivity.
He said: "It cannot be directly described as a sign of a cyberattack."
However, he added that cyberattacks such as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack can, in some cases, overload servers and trigger a 503 error.
