Police have allegedly detained 13 demonstrators from a rally organized by students and job seekers on Dhaka University (DU) campus to press home their demand for extending the age limit up to 35 years for government jobs.
A team of Shahbagh police station detained the protesters around 3pm.
Later, the students gave an ultimatum to release the detainees within 10pm.
Hundreds of job seekers gathered in front of the Raju sculpture on the Dhaka University campus at around 10:30am.
At one stage, some 300 protesters blocked the main road of Shahbagh at around 4:30pm.
Later, additional police with water cannons took position in the area.
Police removed the protesters from the main road of Shahbagh around 4:30pm.
At this time, 13 protesters were detained.
The detainees are- Al-Amin, Noor Mohammad Noor, Humayun Kabir, Sultana Siddiqi, Rima Akter, Brishti Akter, Md Russel, Sheikh Farid, Azim Mohammad, Mamunur Rashid, Manik Das and two others.
After the incident, the job seekers went back to the Raju sculpture and took a position there.
At this time, the agitators announced that they would not return home until their demands were met.
Earlier, around 1 pm jobseekers held a rally at the foot of Dhaka University's Raju Sculpture to raise the age of employment to 35.
In the rally, they gave a statement highlighting various rationales for making the working age 35. They were then obstructed by the police when they took a march towards Shahbag in the direction of Ganabhaban.
Speakers at the rally said that the age limit for applying for jobs in about 162 countries of the world is at least 35 years, and some of them are open. The developed countries of the world, including India, have done a lot of research and made the age limit for job applications a minimum of 35 years according to international standards. On the contrary, the age limit in Bangladesh is only 30.
Shariful Islam Shuvo, one of the protestors in the rally, said: “We want to increase the age limit for job application permanently. In continuation of this, we have been carrying out the program continuously since August 30, last year. The age limit for applying for all types of jobs in the country, including government-private, semi-government, state-owned institutions, autonomous, should be 35 years.”
The age limit for government, nongovernment, semi-government, and autonomous institutions is 30 years in Bangladesh.
However, job seekers have been staging demonstrations to extend the age limit up to 35 years.
Extending support to the demand, Education Minister Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhury has recently written to the Ministry of Public Administration with a proposal to increase the age limit for entering government services from 30 to 35 years.
While talking to the media on April 20, the education minister said that as a public representative, he has placed the recommendation to the public administration ministry on behalf of the job seekers.
But, the decision will depend upon the respective ministry, he added.
Regarding the Education Ministry's recommendation to raise the age limit for government jobs, Minister of Public Administration Farhad Hossain has said it is subject to government policy.
"A decision in this regard will be made in consultation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, adhering to her directives," said the minister on May 5.
