Quota reform: Chhatra League president accuses demonstrator of being Shibir activist during forced meet

Bangladesh Chhatra League President Saifur Rahman Sohag has allegedly accused a leader of the demonstrators demanding reformation of quotas in government jobs of being an Islami Chhatra Shibir activist during a meeting after reportedly having him picked up forcibly. The incident took place Sunday morning right before the job seeking protesters, mostly students from Dhaka University (DU) and Dhaka College, carried out a cleaning drive in and around the university. Witnesses, whom included journalists, said that Chhatra League central committee’s Organizing Secretary BM Ehtesham and Joint Secretary Didar Md Nizamul Islam had forcibly taken Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad Joint Convener Md Bin Yamin Mollah to Madhur Canteen at DU when he was addressing a gathering before the demonstration. Afterwards, Yamin told the Dhaka Tribune: “Several central leaders of Chhatra League had come and asked about our demonstration. Then they asked me to go with them to Madhur Canteen to meet with Chhatra League President Sohag and General Secretary SM Jakir Hossain.” “At first I did not want to go as a delegation from our organization as supposed to meet and talk to them. But they insisted and somewhat forced me to go, while assuring me that the chief coordinator of our protest Hasan Al Mamun was already there,” he said. “However, after I arrived at Madhur Canteen, I told them during the meeting that we were thinking about the greater interest,” added Yamin, a final year student of DU’s Public Administration Department. “But Chhatra League President Sohag suddenly addressed me as a Shibir activist which hurt me a lot. He also told me to stop the demonstration,” he claimed. “A little later, Hasan came and we left after talking with them.” Sohag, however, rejected the allegations and told the Dhaka Tribune: “We did not bring them forcibly. They were nearby and we talked to them about their movement briefly.” He also denied calling Yamin an activist of Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami. “I only told them that Shibir activist should not take the control of their movement.” Job seekers across the country on Sunday staged a unique demonstration as part of their non-violent movement demanding reformation of the existing quota system in cadre service and other government jobs. Thousands of job seekers and students of universities and colleges, under the banner of Bangladesh Sadharon Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad, swept streets, institution premises and Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka with brooms while wearing their educational certificates around their necks. The cleaning drive was part of their cleaning campaign on the occasion of the Independence Day and National Day, which falls on March 26. They started from in front of DU Central Library, to the Shaheed Minar premises via Shahbagh and Fuller Road while clearing streets. The protesters demands include keeping 10% quota for freedom fighters and others and the rest 90% on merit, recruitment of meritorious students in government jobs if eligible candidates are not found under the quota system, stopping special recruitment under a fixed quota, uniform age limit in government recruitment process and scope for switching jobs under quota facility to a different candidate only on the basis of merit.