Protesters to announce fresh programme Saturday

The quota reform demonstrators will announce their next course of action programme through a press conference to be held tomorrow in coordination with all public and private universities across the country.

The announcement came from a demonstration staged at Shahbagh intersection in the capital Dhaka on Friday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, agitating students brought out a procession on Dhaka University campus as part of their ‘Bangla Blockade’ programme enforced against the prevailing 30 percent quota system for freedom fighters’ family members in government jobs.

The procession also aimed to protest the attacks on anti-quota demonstrators in different parts of the country.

A number of DU students, under the banner of the anti-discriminatory student movement, brought out the procession from in front of the Central Library around 5 pm and staged a demonstration at Shahbagh intersection after marching to different streets of the DU.

Additionally, leaders of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student body of the Awami League, were reported to gather at Madhur Canteen with a plan to persuade the agitating students to return to their classes, sunning the path of the movement.

JU students blockade Dhaka-Aricha highway

Defying police warnings of stern action and ministers’ calls to stop anti-quota protesters, students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) blockaded the Dhaka-Aricha highway on Friday press home their demand for cancellation of the quota system in public services.

Hundreds of university students thronged the highway at 3:38 pm in a bid to realise their demand.