Anti-quota movement: Students to hold protest march, present demands to President tomorrow
Coordinators of the anti-quota student movement at a press conference in front of the DU central library on 13 July. Photo: TBS
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Coordinators of the anti-quota student movement at a press conference in front of the DU central library on 13 July. Photo: TBS
Students of various government universities are set to continue their movement tomorrow (14 July), protesting against quotas in government jobs.
“We will hold a protest march tomorrow at 11am, starting from Dhaka University premises…Students from different districts will [come together and] present their demands in a letter to the President tomorrow through the district commissioner,” Hasnat Abdullah, a coordinator of the student movement, said at a press conference in front of the DU central library.
Nahid Islam, another coordinator of the movement, said, “Our student strike will continue. Even if teachers return to class, students won’t. Students’ protest will continue until their demands are met. If there is no fair solution, it will turn into a larger movement.”
He also said, “We have been carrying on a peaceful movement since the beginning. The government should have discussed it with us and coordinated it. But we have seen that the students were attacked by the police and the ruling party student body [Bangladesh Chhatra League].”
Earlier, at least 20 people, including students and policemen, were injured when the police cracked down on students of Comilla University protesting against the quota system in government jobs, protesters said.
Following the incident, a case was filed yesterday against “unidentified” students, accusing them of vandalising police vehicles during the ongoing protest.
Referring to this, the coordinators said the case must be withdrawn within 24 hours.
“Those who attacked the students should be brought to justice. Rubber bullets were fired at Comilla University students. 30 of them were injured. One of our coordinating teams went there and spoke to the students. We also had a meeting with the Cumilla police. I spoke to those who are protesting in Comilla University about coordination between the Cumilla district police and those concerned,” Nahid said.
Addressing the teachers, he said, “When you [teachers] were protesting, students did not go to class. Therefore, don’t pressure students for exams. We want to improve the relationship between teachers and students.”
