Technical students across the country on Wednesday enforced blockades to press home their demands.
The demonstrations disrupted traffic and caused suffering for commuters in several areas.
Dhaka protest
In Dhaka’s Tejgaon Satrasta intersection, technical students began a blockade around 11:30am on Wednesday, halting traffic in the area.
They staged the protest with a six-point demand, as part of the previously announced nationwide demonstrations by the “Technical Student Movement.”
Their demands include cancelling the High Court–nullified promotion and recruitment of craft instructors, scrapping age-limit-free admission in the Diploma in Engineering course, and introducing a modern four-year curriculum, reports Bangla Tribune.
They also called for the establishment of a separate Ministry of Technical and Higher Education, a commission for technical education reform, a modern technical university, and admissions at the under-construction engineering colleges in Narail, Natore, Khagrachhari, and Thakurgaon through temporary campuses.
The blockade was withdrawn around 2pm, nearly three hours after it began, and traffic gradually returned to normal.
Gazipur protest
In Gazipur, another group of diploma engineers staged a protest by blocking the Dhaka–Mymensingh highway, demanding action against ongoing conspiracies concerning the sub-assistant engineer post.
They presented a seven-point demand while staging the protest.
From 1:30pm on Wednesday, they obstructed the highway at Chandana Crossroad in Gazipur city, according to Inspector Tarikul Islam of Gazipur traffic police.
The demonstration was organized under the banner of the “Diploma Engineers Welfare Foundation”, causing significant inconvenience to commuters and vehicle operators on the highway.
The protesting engineers have warned that if the government does not take clear steps to protect their status and meet their demands, they will escalate the program nationwide.
They had also staged a protest on the previous day, Tuesday, by blocking railway lines.
Members of the Diploma Engineers Welfare Foundation said the current program is aimed at those attempting to destabilize the country through continued conspiracies and unreasonable demands against diploma engineers.
Tangail protest
Students of Tangail Polytechnic Institute blocked the Dhaka–Tangail–Jamuna Bridge highway at Rabna Bypass on Wednesday from 12pm to 2:30pm, protesting the government’s rejection of three “unreasonable” demands by BSc degree holders, slow implementation of the Technical Students’ Movement’s six-point demands, threats of public shooting against diploma engineers, and the dismissal of a committee formed to resolve professional engineering issues.
The blockade caused a traffic jam stretching nearly 20 kilometres, from Elenga to Karatia, leaving commuters severely inconvenienced.
The army later instructed the students to lift the blockade, leading to a brief verbal confrontation. The road was finally cleared around 2:30pm.
Our Gazipur correspondent Raihanul Islam Akand and Tangail correspondent Abdullah Al Numan contributed to this report