Police foiled an attempted rally by students at the Shahbagh intersection here on Friday. The students were demanding cancellation of the quota system in the Bangladesh Civil Services (BCS) exams. The police picked up 40 students from Shahbagh and adjacent areas. However, Shahbagh Police Station officer-in-charge (OC) Sirajul Islam said 36 people were detained for questioning.
The students will stage demonstrations on Saturday and enforce strike on Sunday in all educational institutions across the country protesting the arrest of demonstrators from Dhaka University and its adjacent areas, according to sources.
The protesters and government jobseekers alleged that when several lakh of students launched movement demanding cancellation of quota system from government jobs, police and Chhatra League carried out sudden attacks on them.
They warned that they would launch tougher action, if the protesters are not released immediately.
Discontent has been brewing among civil service aspirants since Wednesday following publication of the preliminary result for the 34th BCS exam. They staged a demonstration at Shahbagh, forcing the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) to announce a review of the result. However, this failed to placate the agitators.
As part of the agitation, students tried to put up a road blockade at the Shahbagh intersection on Thursday to demand cancellation of the quota system. But a police crackdown forced the agitators to flee towards Dhaka University (DU).
The students later regrouped and clashed with police. They also damaged several
vehicles and carried out vandalism at several places on DU campus, including the vice-chancellor’s residence.
Later, police filed a case against 1,200 unknown persons in connection with the vandalism and clashes at Shahbagh and DU. The FIR was lodged by sub-inspector Abdul Roufm at Shahbagh police station.
Police said they have arrested nine DU students, whose names were mentioned in the FIR. They were identified as Hafizur Rahman, Tauhidul Islam, Shikder Didarul Islam, Motiur Rahman, Zahirul Islam, Jonayed, Nurul Huda, Raihan Kawser and Arif Hossain.
On Friday, 15 more students were arrested from DU campus in this connection.
Also on Thursday night, chief security officer of DU SM Quamrul Ahsan had filed a case against 500 unknown students for vandalism. With this, the total number of accused in the two cases stood at 1,700.
-With The Independent input
