11 injured as police baton-charge protesting MATS students marching to Secretariat
The MATS students have been protesting for the past couple of weeks over the same demands
At least 11 students from the Medical Assistant Training School (MATS) were injured today (9 February) as police charged batons to disperse demonstrators attempting to march towards the Bangladesh Secretariat.
The students were protesting to press for several demands, including the immediate filling of vacant 10th-grade positions in government jobs, job opportunities in public and private sectors, an overhaul of their course curriculum, renaming their institution to a medical institute, and the establishment of an independent Medical Education Board of Bangladesh.
The injured protesters were taken to the Emergency Department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) around 5pm, confirmed DMCH police outpost In-Charge Md Faruk. "They are currently under treatment," he told The Business Standard.
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The protest began at 11am, with students blocking the Shahbagh intersection as part of a pre-announced long march programme. The blockade caused severe traffic congestion across the city.
Around 2pm, the personal officer of the health adviser, Tuhin Farabi, met the demonstrators and urged them to send a representative to the Ministry of Health for discussions.
At that time, he told the students that a circular would be issued tomorrow or the day after tomorrow regarding the appointment of vacant posts as per the demands.
There is a plan to gradually appoint a total of 800 vacant posts. And the issue of the students' demand for 10th grade has already been sent to the Ministry of Public Administration, Tuhin said.
Following this, a 5-member delegation from the students went to the health ministry in the afternoon to discuss their demands with the health adviser.
Around 3pm, the student representatives entered the ministry, accompanied by the adviser's personal officer.
Despite ongoing discussions, tensions escalated as students remaining at Shahbagh attempted to break through police barricades to reach the Secretariat.
Around 4:30pm, when the demonstrators tried to advance from Shahbagh, police chased them near the High Court area and used batons to disperse the march.
