Staff Reporter:
University students lifted their nearly six-hour blockade of the capital’s Shahbagh intersection on Thursday with an announcement to hold different programmes over the next three days against the quota system in government job recruitment.
The students would campaign offline and online in support of their demands on Friday, stage anti-quota processions in and around different colleges and universities of the country on Saturday and start a boycott of classes from Sunday.
Nahid Islam, coordinator at “Boishommo Birodhi Chattrra Andolon”, announced the new programmes.
Earlier, at 11.30am, students gathered in front of University of Dhaka’s Central Library to start their day’s protest. A procession moved through different streets of the university before joining a culmination of hundreds of students at the Shahbagh intersection at 12.15pm. They lifted the blockade at around 6.15pm.
Thursday was the third straight day of blockade of the Shahbagh intersection by university students. On all the three days, there was heavy police presence on the spot, but no untoward incident occured as officers peacefully cleared the way for protesting students.
However, at one point, at 5pm on Thursday, spectre arose of a sudden clash with police when personnel put on helmets and students appeared determined to resist. Fortunately, the situation cooled within a short time.
Roads were blocked at a number of other crucial points across the country on Thursday as university students outside Dhaka joined the protest. The Dhaka-Chattogram highway, Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, Dhaka-Barhishal highway and Kushtia-Jhenidah highway were blocked, among others
Students of Islami University, Kushtia blocked the highway leading to Jhenidah for 25 minutes from 12pm. Police were present at the spot, but did not intervene.
