Anti-quota protest march begins on Dhaka University campus

Students and job seekers have started a protest procession on Dhaka University campus as part of their ‘Bangla Blockade’ movement to press home 4-point demand, including reinstatement of a government circular that abolished quota system in government jobs in 2018.

The protesters brought out the procession in front of Dhaka University central library on 3:32 pm. The procession is supposed to go to Shahbagh intersection after parading different streets.

The students brought out the procession under the banner of ‘anti-discrimination student movement’ chanting different slogans demanding withdrawal of quota system.

Leaders and activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling party student wing, were at the Modhur Canteen at that time but they did not obstruct the protesters.

The students started gathering on DU central library premises at around 2:30 pm. Students from different residential halls and departments joined the procession in droves, turning the gathering into a human sea by 3:00 pm.

Earlier, the anti-quota protesters boycotted classes and examinations at DU and other universities and colleges across the country today, Sunday. The demonstrators also imposed blockades on different intersections of the city and elsewhere in the country.

Apart from the reinstatement of the circular, the protestors are also pressing for more demands.

Those include formation of commission to omit irrational and discriminatory quotas in all grades of government jobs subjected to the reinstatement of the 2018 circular, considering the backward community as per the constitution, closing down the scopes to use the quota facility for more than once, filling up the empty posts reserved for quota on the basis of merit and taking effective measures to ensure a corruption-free, neutral and merit-based bureaucracy.