Five job seekers excluded from the second gazette of the 43rd Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination have been on a hunger strike for over 80 hours as of 8pm on Friday, demanding inclusion and immediate action from the authorities.
The protesters are calling for their names to be included in the gazette, confirmation of their appointments, and the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive "Government Service Verification Policy."
The hunger strike began at 11am on Tuesday under the banner of the "43rd BCS Deprived Cadre Officers and General Students," at the base of the Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus.
The participants in the hunger strike are Md Faisal Chowdhury, Md Motiur Rahman, MA Hannan Sarkar, Debashish Ghosh, and Samarjit Chakraborty.
In solidarity, other job seekers—also excluded from the second gazette—joined them in a sit-in protest at the same location.
One protester told Dhaka Tribune that 227 candidates are still awaiting gazette notification. She claimed that despite repeated assurances from government officials since January, no further gazette has been published.
“We expect the promises made by government officials to be implemented without delay. We will continue this hunger strike until the final publication of the 43rd BCS gazette,” she said.
Another protester said they deserve an explanation for why 227 candidates were excluded from the second notification, especially since the first gazette had already been verified by the interim government.
“Many of us resigned from our previous jobs after receiving appointment dates for the 43rd BCS. Now, we’re in a situation where we’ve lost our old jobs and cannot join the new ones,” he added.
On Wednesday, two of the hunger strikers—Debashish Ghosh and Samarjit Chakraborty—showed signs of physical weakness. A medical team arrived at the site around 11:45am and recommended that Debashish be hospitalized due to his deteriorating health.
