Bangla Blockade: JU protesters chant 'Equality of Opportunity' on Dhaka-Aricha highway

Hundreds of students from Jahangirnagar University (JU) blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway on Sunday morning, demanding the cancellation quota system in government jobs and the retention of merit-based recruitment. 

Beginning at 11 am, students started a procession in front of the central library, marching through various campus roads before reaching the Dhaka-Aricha highway near the main gate. At this point, they blocked both lanes of the highway from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.

The two-hour protest caused severe traffic jams, leading to considerable inconvenience for commuters. The congestion extended up to Hemayetpur on the Aricha-bound section and Pallibidyut area on the Dhaka-bound section, causing significant delays for passengers.

The protesting students also boycotted their classes and examinations today.

During the protest, students chanted various slogans, including "The principle of the constitution, equality of opportunity," "Spread the news across Bangla, bury quota," "Wake up, wake up, the student society has awakened," "Quota or merit, merit, merit," "Compromise or struggle, struggle, struggle," and "In the Bengal of the liberation war, there is no room for discrimination."

Touhid Siam, Joint Convener of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement at JU, stated, "Our movement will persist until our demands are met. There are unfounded allegations attempting to link us with Jamaat-BNP and spread false propaganda. Let it be clear, this is a movement driven by regular students. If our demands are fulfilled, the movement will conclude immediately. Therefore, it's inaccurate to claim any partisan affiliation in our efforts."

Mahfuz Islam Megh, member secretary of the committee, remarked, "We had originally announced our blockade to begin Sunday afternoon. However, out of respect for the Rath Yatra, a religious ceremony of Hindus, we initiated the blockade at 11 am instead. We apologise for any temporary inconvenience caused to passengers while addressing a longstanding issue. If our reasonable demands are not met, the entire country will be paralysed."

Arif Sohel, convener of JU Anti-discrimination Student Movement, told FE, "Currently, our sole plan is to execute the blockade programme. We intend to continue with this until our demands are met. Later today, we will announce the next steps in coordination with activists from all educational institutions nationwide."

The students' additional demands include the immediate formation of a commission, in line with the 2018 circular, to eliminate unjust and discriminatory quotas for all government job grades. They advocate that only backward and disadvantaged groups should receive constitutional quota benefits. They oppose multiple uses of quota benefits in government job recruitment exams and propose that vacant quota positions should be filled based on merit if qualified candidates are unavailable. Furthermore, they call for effective measures to ensure a corruption-free, impartial, and merit-based bureaucracy.

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