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Published : 15 Oct 2025, 05:58 PM
Teachers and employees under the MPO scheme, who had been staging demonstrations for a fourth straight day demanding a 20 percent housing allowance in their salaries, have left Shahbagh intersection after blocking it for nearly three hours.
Around 2pm on Wednesday, protesters occupied the key intersection, halting traffic in all directions. By 5pm, they withdrew and marched back to Central Shaheed Minar to resume their sit-in protests.
Delwar Hossain Azizi, member secretary of the alliance MPO Nationalisation Expectant Alliance -- the coalition leading the movement -- announced that they would march toward the chief advisor’s residence and the State Guest House Jamuna on Thursday.
He said the next course of action would be declared from Shaheed Minar.
Earlier, the teachers had given the government until noon to accept their demands, which include:
Raising the housing allowance to 20 percent of the basic salary
Increasing the medical allowance from Tk 500 to Tk 1,500
Raising the festival allowance for MPO staff from 50 percent to 75 percent of basic salary
When no response came, they began a pre-announced “blockade” at 1:45pm, marching from Shaheed Minar toward the busy intersection.
Police had set up barricades near Shahbagh Police Station, but were overrun as teachers pushed forward, eventually occupying the entire junction and stopping traffic.
The protest is part of a continuous movement that began on Sunday under the same coalition banner. Earlier, they had been holding sit-in protests at Shaheed Minar.
On Tuesday, teachers attempted to march from Shaheed Minar toward the Secretariat but were stopped by police near the High Court Mazar Gate. After standing their ground there until 8pm, they returned to Shaheed Minar for the night.
The demonstrations began on Sunday morning in front of the National Press Club. Teachers relocated to the Shaheed Minar that afternoon after police requested they clear the area.
However, some groups refused to leave, prompting police to fire several sound grenades and baton-charge the crowd.
Condemning the “police attack,” teachers declared a nationwide work stoppage across all private institutions starting Monday.
On Sept 30, the government raised house rent allowance by Tk 500 -- a move the teachers rejected when announced publicly on Oct 5.
The education ministry later sent a proposal to the Finance Division on Oct 6, recommending an increase of Tk 2,000–3,000 in housing allowance.
MPO teachers are paid according to the national pay scale, with a monthly medical allowance of Tk 500 and a house rent allowance of Tk 1,000 -- recently increased by Tk 500.
Until May this year, they received two festival bonuses annually at 25 percent of the basic salary, which has now been raised to 50 percent.
