Staff Reporter :
Police charged batons and lobbed tear gas on job-seekers to foil their march towards the Public Administration Ministry. They wanted to submit a memorandum seeking reforms of the quota system in the government job recruitment examinations.
Several thousand job seekers, and students of different university and colleges assembled at Shikkha Odhikar Chattar and brought out a procession therefrom at 11:00am. It was part of their scheduled programme.
When they were passing by High Court, police intercepted them.
Getting obstruction, the protesters blocked the road. So to disperse them, police charged baton and lobbed teargas shells.
Rashedul Islam, Coordinator of Bangladesh Shadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad said that about five demonstrators were picked up by police. Abul Hasan, Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station defended their own action.
The job-seekers have been agitating to press home their five-point demand that include introduction of identical age limit in government jobs, review of quota system in government job recruitment process, filling vacant posts from merit list if the candidates from quota are not found and fixation of 10 per cent quota instead of existing 56 per cent.
