Police arrested at least 40 people from city’s Buet, Dhaka University and Shahbagh areas on Friday suspecting they could “further invigorate anarchy” centring their demand for the cancellation of 34th BCS preliminary test results and demolition of the provision for quota.
Among the arrestees, eight were picked up from the campus of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), three others from the Shaheed Minar premises, and at least 15-16 from Shahbagh.
Protesters claimed police made indiscriminate arrests from Shahbagh area as they had scheduled a further protest there at 3:30pm.
Members of police were kept alert in Shahbagh since Friday morning following a fierce clash between the job seekers and police at Dhaka University campus Thursday.
The arrestees were taken to Shahbagh police station.
Meanwhile, Shibli Noman, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna zone, in a press conference said the arrests were made following two cases, one filed by the Dhaka University administration which sued around 500, and another filed by the police suing 1,100-1,200 unnamed people, following Thursday’s clashes and vandalism.
A section of BCS job seekers who failed to come out successfully in the last BCS preliminary test, took to the streets on Wednesday.
At one stage, they seized the busy Shahbagh intersection, contributing to huge traffic jams on many key roads across the city.
Following the protest, the Public Service Commission decided to review the results of the competitive preliminary test.
