Students of several private universities in Dhaka have taken to the streets on Tuesday expressing solidarity to the protests calling for reforms to quotas in public service.
Students of North South University and American International University, Bangladesh are demonstrating blocking the Pragati Avenue in front of the Jamuna Future Park shopping mall in the capital.
The road on the eastern end of the Rampura Bridge has been occupied by East West University students while in Dhanmondi Daffodil University students demonstrated on the street.
Traffic in and around the demonstration sites are severely affected with long tail backs of vehicles seen in several locations across Dhaka city.
“Students of Daffodil University came out on the streets in Sobhanbagh. We, however, managed to remove them and now they are demonstrating inside their campus,” said OC Gopal Ganesh Biswas of the Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station.
Police in Dhaka’s Badda said East West University students have blocked one of the lanes of the road. “We are trying to persuade them to go back to their campus,” said OC Kazi Wazed Ali.
Vatara police station chief said that students have entirely blocked the street in front of the Jamuna Future Park on the Pragati Avenue.
Protests demanding reform of the quota system have been continuing for quite some time. Last month, police broke up their march to the Secretariat when several arrests were made.
On Sunday, a procession was taken out from the Dhaka University campus around 2pm. An hour later, protesters blocked the key intersection of Shahbagh and started demonstrating.
Five hours later, police used teargas to disperse the protesters around 8pm, when they moved on to the Dhaka University campus.
Running battles broke out at several places on the campus, which lasted until the early hours on Monday.
Amid the clashes, a group of unidentified men barged in to the vice-chancellor’s residence, before vandalising furniture and home appliances. They also set fire and damaged vehicles parked inside the premises.
On Monday afternoon, the protesters announced a pause in their demonstration until May 7 after a meeting with senior Awami League leader and Minister Obaidul Quader.
Soon after the protesters split, with another group announcing that they would continue with demonstrations.
They set a deadline of Apr 15 for the government to meet their demand.
According to the existing system, 56 percent posts are reserved for different quotas, including 30 percent for children of freedom fighters, 10 percent each for women and particular districts, 5 percent for small ethnic groups, and 1 percent for people with disabilities.