Police disperse quota protesters

Police dispersed the job seekers and university students from Shahbagh on Sunday evening, nearly five hours after they blocked the intersection demanding reforms of the existing quota system in government recruitment tests, including BCS examination, reports UNB.

The law enforcers charged baton, and lobbed teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the job seekers and students.

Police swung into action around 7:50pm after the demonstrators refused to withdraw the blockade, witnesses said.

Earlier, several thousand protesters blocked the Shahbagh intersection around 3pm, triggering gridlocks in roads around the intersection and inflicting sufferings on the city dwellers.

As part of the countrywide programme announced earlier by Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad (Bangladesh General Students' Right Protection Council), students of different city universities and colleges, and job seekers demonstrated in front of the Dhaka University Central Library in the afternoon.

From there, they brought out a rally around 2:30 pm which paraded different important points of the university.

Later, they marched towards Shahbagh to stage a sit-in programme there to press for their demand.

Additional law enforcers remained deployed in the area but they did not take any action until the evening.

Speaking on the occasion, Hasan Al Mamun, convener of the parishad, said they will continue their movement until their demands was met.

On February 17, students and job seekers started the movement to press for their five-point demand that include introduction of unified age limit in government jobs, review of quota system in government recruitment process, including Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, stopping taking benefit by job seekers under the same quota, filling vacant posts from merit list if the candidates from quota are not found and fixation of 10 per cent quota instead of existing 56 per cent.