A faction of students from Jahangirnagar University (JU) put a blockade on the Dhaka-Aricha highway in front of the university on Thursday, demanding the immediate cancellation of the quota system in recruitments to governmental jobs, as well as the review of the BCS examination results published on Monday.
The students formed a human chain on Dhaka-Aricha highway road in front of the university's main entrance at 11am, and staged a demonstration under the banner of “JU Shocheton Chhatra Shomaj,” causing severe traffic congestion on both sides of the road.
The protesters questioned the government: “why is there so much discrimination in the job field while the country’s constitution speaks of equal rights?”
At the human chain, History Department Professor ATM Atikur Rahman said: “our liberation war’s expectation was to build a society of equality and to abolish discrimination from the country, so the discrimination in the name of quota cannot run anymore in Bangladesh.”
Ashulia police came to the spot in an attempt to control the situation but the students did not allow them to do so, saying police attacked the protesters around the Dhaka University area.
Around 12pm, JU Proctor Prof Dr Md Muzibur Rahman came to the spot and requested the students to leave the road as over two kilometres traffic congestion had developed on both sides of the road, causing an immearusable degree of suffering for commuters on the first day of Ramadan. The agitators responded by withdrawing the blackade and leaving the road.
The convener of the protest, Abir Haidar, a masters student of history, declared the movement's next course of action would involve a procession and demonstration in the campus on Friday.
On Wednesday, in the face of student movements from different educational institutes against the public service quota system, Bangladesh Public Service Commission said it would review the BCS preliminary results published on Monday. Students from Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University, Dhaka College and Eden College were present among the demonstrators.
A total of 12,033 candidates out of 225,575, qualified for the public service commission’s written examinations.
