Engineering students vow to continue protest after clash with police; reject govt committee
The fresh demands include – the Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury must publicly apologise and take responsibility for the “police attack” on the protesters; and the government bear the medical expenses of all injured students and ensure the safety of demonstrators.
Police today (27 August) fired tear gas and sound grenades, charged batons, and used water cannons to disperse students of engineering universities as they marched towards the chief adviser's official residence, Jamuna, to press home their three-point demands.
The Cabinet Division formed an eight-member committee to examine and make recommendations on the professional demands of BSc and diploma engineers, amid protests by both groups over the status of the latter.
The committee included four advisers, with Energy Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan as the chair.
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Later, advisers Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan and Syeda Rizwana Hasan held a meeting with the representatives of protesting engineering students at the Rail Bhaban in the evening.
Protesting engineering students, however, rejected the government's committee, and announced a fresh five-point demand.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon in front of the InterContinental Hotel in Dhaka, the students declared that they will continue their protest until their demands are met.
The fresh demands include – the Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury must publicly apologise and take responsibility for the "police attack" on the protesters; and the government bear the medical expenses of all injured students and ensure the safety of demonstrators.
Md Sabbir Ahmed, coordinator of the Engineers' Rights Movement, said some students were injured and hospitalised after police used batons and tear gas on them.
At least eight members of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) were also injured during the chase and counter-chase, reports BSS.
There is a ban by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) imposed on all forms of public gatherings, processions, and rallies near the Bangladesh Secretariat and Jamuna, as well as surrounding areas.
DMP Ramna Zone DC Masud Alam told reporters, "We only prevented the protesters from marching towards the chief adviser's residence. We had not gone to action despite the students blockading Shahbagh intersection for two days."
Cuet, Ruet students stage protests
Meanwhile, students of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) and Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (Ruet) blocked major roads in their respective cities both to press home the demands regarding the status of diploma engineers and to protest alleged police attacks on students from Buet and other universities during demonstrations in Dhaka.
In Chattogram, Cuet students blocked the Gate No 2 intersection around 4:30pm, chanting slogans that disrupted vehicular movement. Students from the Raozan campus also joined the demonstration.
Aminul Islam, a student of the Water Resources Engineering department at Cuet, told The Business Standard, "We have long been carrying out our movement with logical demands. Instead of addressing them, the police attacked my brothers, standing on students' blood. This is outrageous, and we strongly condemn it."
In Rajshahi, Ruet students gathered at Talaimari intersection around 3:30pm, staging a road blockade that brought traffic to a halt on the Rajshahi-Natore-Bhodra highway.
They voiced the same three demands as Cuet while also protesting the police action — including sound grenades, tear gas, and baton charges — against engineering students in Dhaka.
Fahim Ahmed Habib, a fourth-year student of Chemical Engineering at Ruet, said, "Our three-point demands remain as they are. In addition, we now demand justice for the attackers. If fresh programmes are announced from Dhaka, we will return to the streets again."
Around 6:30pm, the students withdrew their blockade.
The demands
At the centre of the movement is the call to make entry tests mandatory for all candidates seeking recruitment in the ninth grade of engineering or for positions such as assistant engineer.
Eligibility, they insist, should be restricted to those holding at least a BSc degree in engineering.
They also oppose promotions through quotas or by creating equivalent posts under different names.
Their second demand is to open recruitment examinations for the 10th grade of technical or equivalent posts, such as sub-assistant engineer, to both diploma and BSc degree holders.
The third demand seeks legal action against those using the title of "engineer" without a BSc degree in engineering.
The students also want non-accredited BSc engineering courses to be brought under accreditation by the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, through its Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education.
Advisers' meeting with the protesters
Adviser Fouzul Kabir Khan, after holding the meeting with the representatives of the protesting students, told the media that the clash between the students and the police is unwanted.
"Students have been injured. The police officer involved will apologise to them," he said.
Fouzul added, "We have heard their (the protesters) side, but there are many other stakeholders. We will listen to the university teachers, then the diploma engineers, and then the engineering institutions that hire – organisations like LGD, the Public Works Department, the Power Development Board, and the Railway. We will sit with them all and try to find a solution."
The committee will meet tomorrow to discuss the matter, he said, adding that they will later sit with other stakeholders.
