Engineering students from BUET, other institutions block Shahbagh over three demands

They set an 8pm deadline for authorities to accept their demands

Engineering students from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and several other universities have blocked the Shahbagh intersection, staging a protest to press home their three-point charter of demands.

They gave the authorities until 8pm to comply.

The blockade began around 3pm on Tuesday, with students marching and shouting slogans, creating severe traffic congestion across adjoining roads.

Shahbagh Police chief Khalid Monsur said officers were working to ease movement.

At a press briefing near Shahbagh around 5:45pm, leaders of the “Engineers’ Rights Movement” reiterated their demands.

Vice-President Shakil Ahmed Iqbal said they had been campaigning peacefully for five months, sending letters to 100 institutions and meeting education and public administration ministries without result.

He added that the protest was sparked by a death threat made in Rangpur on Monday against a BUET graduate employed at NESCO.

Their demands include:

• Recruitment of assistant engineers in the ninth grade only through examinations, with a minimum qualification of BSc in engineering

• Allowing higher-degree holders to apply for 10th-grade posts currently reserved for diploma engineers

• Restricting the professional title of “engineer” to BSc graduates

Shakil alleged that 20–25 people in Rangpur had threatened to kill engineer Rokun for submitting petitions on behalf of the movement. He urged immediate arrest and dismissal of those responsible, as well as a gazette notification fulfilling their three-point demand.

He warned that if the authorities failed to act by 8pm, students would escalate their movement with tougher programmes.