Ignoring the rain, they broke the police barricade and stood at Shahbag intersection on Thursday afternoon.
Students have been holding Bengali blockade program since July 6 under the banner of anti-discrimination student society demanding quota reform. After the court’s direction, the DMP requested the students not to come out on the streets.
Still, students of various universities and colleges including Dhaka University (DU) started observing the ‘Bangla Blockade’ program.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Commissioner Dr. b. Mahid Uddin told Dhaka Post that the police showed patience there (in Shahbagh). We held a press conference and requested the students not to take to the streets. Yesterday the court gave a direction. So there is no room for movement on quota. I hope that the agitating students will not give a new program to create public suffering. But they fell down.
Mahid said, the position of the police is there. The police showed patience. Hopefully, it will be over today. Fardar will do nothing. The police do not want anything to happen to the students. They should also understand. They should also be responsible. Hope they understand.
It should be noted that on Thursday (July 11) at around 5 pm, the agitators took a stand at Shahbagh intersection. At first the police stopped them, then moved away. Due to the students’ blockade, Shahbagh and its surrounding areas are currently completely closed to traffic.
The anti-discrimination student movement is holding a continuous blockade program demanding the cancellation of the quota system in government jobs and the reinstatement of the 2018 circular. The program called ‘Bangla Blockade’ started from last July 7. After the first two days of half-day blockade, the morning-evening blockade program continued on Wednesday with a one-day break on Tuesday.