Wave of violence rocks DU

At least 19 people were injured and many others felt sick inhaling teargas as Dhaka University campus turned into a battlefield on Thursday with protestors clashing with police demanding scrapping of quota system in jobs.

There were sporadic clashes on the campus. At one point of time activists of ruling Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League also clashed with police as the protestors started taking refuge on the campus after being chased away by police.

In the clash 19 persons were injured. Of them, four sustained bullet injuries. Many other students have fallen sick inhaling teargas.

Police also arrested 12 persons from various parts of Shahbagh and the university campus.

A group of candidates who failed to clear 34th BCS preliminary exams had blocked the Shahbagh intersection on Wednesday, causing severe traffic gridlocks in the capital.

To quell the protest the PSC on Wednesday had announced that the results would be reviewed.

But the agitating students were not pacified by the announcement as they demanded that entire quota system be abolished.

To press for their demand a group of students converged at Shahbagh on Thursday morning and tried to resume the road blockade. Soon police intervened which led to the clashes.

The agitated students then took position in front of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University and started raising slogan.

They set fire to the street and hurled brickbats at police.

Police lobbed teargas shells and advanced towards TSC despite facing brickbats.

The protestors damaged several vehicles, including one of private TV station ATN Bangla, at the time. The ATN Bangla vehicle’s driver was injured in the head.

Around 12:15pm, the students melted away as the police advanced, firing in the air and lobbing teargas shell.

They hurled bricks at the residence of Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor and ransacked the Proctor’s Office.

Then a group of Chhatra League activists beat up some of the demonstrators, branding them as ‘Shibir activists’.

Acting Proctor Amzad Ali told reporters this movement was not to press for the end of the quota system, but to create disorder.

On Wednesday, he had gone to Shahbagh after hearing the news of the protest and expressed solidarity with the agitators.

“Someone will fail after getting 80 marks and someone will pass with 50 marks – this discrimination cannot be allowed to continue,” is what he had said then.

He had also blamed some 'overenthusiastic people at PSC' for getting the government into trouble.

Most of the agitators on Thursday were from Dhaka University.

But several groups of agitated students were also carrying out similar protests at the Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University and in Sylhet’s Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.

Students who sat for the 34th BCS preliminary test have expressed deep frustration after the test results were published on Monday.

Though earlier, the quotas were considered after written examinations (held after preliminary test), this time it was made effective at the primary screening.

Protestors say this had eased out many students of true merit.

A total of 12,033 came out successful in the tests - a mere 5.43 percent of the total 221,575 candidates who sat for the examinations.

After the daylong protest on Wednesday, the PSC had announced that the results will be reviewed. But later in a press briefing, the demonstrators demanded cancellation of the result and sought an end to the quota system.

In view of this, Ministry of Public Administration’s Senior Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder told bdnews24.com that the government had neither given any directives about the quota system.