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Police once again used force, including baton and water cannon, on Thursday to disperse scrapped primary schoolteachers as they staged a sit-in blocking the city's busy Shahbagh intersection.
The lawmen also took away some of the protesters for "interrogation" at the nearby police station.
They continued their protest demanding the reinstatement of their cancelled appointments as assistant teachers in government primary schools.
Eyewitnesses and police sources said several hundred protesters, who had been declared invalid by the court as assistant teachers in government primary schools, blocked the Shahbagh intersection around noon.
At that time, a long traffic tailback formed all around.
The police tried to convince them verbally to move off the road. As they did not comply with the plea, police started using force and chased them off the road.
Later, the situation returned to normal and traffic resumed.
Mohammad Khalid Mansur, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh police station, told the media that the police were forced to remove the protesters from the road to control the situation.
Some of them were taken to the station for questioning.
Agitating teachers said they had been protesting for a reasonable demand as they were recommended on merit for the job.
The teachers have been protesting for days together demanding the reinstatement of the jobs. As part of their protest, they blocked roads earlier.
Meanwhile, the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) on Thursday filed an appeal petition against the High Court verdict that cancelled a government decision to issue appointment letters to 6,531 candidates who were qualified as assistant teachers for government primary schools in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions.
Confirming the matter, Deputy Attorney General Md Asad Uddin said the Chamber Court of the Appellate Division may hear the petition on Sunday.
Earlier on February 6, the HC set aside the government's decision to issue appointment letters to the candidates, following a writ petition.
The HC cancelled the decision as their recruitment process was completed under the 84-per cent quota system which was scrapped by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court last July.
The HC also directed the authorities to start a fresh recruitment process in line with the apex court verdict which has ruled that 93-per cent jobs in civil service will be merit-based and remaining 7 percent will be from quota.
The HC bench comprising Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi delivered the verdict after hearing a writ petition filed by some unsuccessful candidates.
The recruitment process was completed in three phases, and the final results were published on 31 October 2024.
A total of 31 unsuccessful candidates filed the writ petition last November, challenging the recruitment process on the grounds of quota system violations.
In the verdict, the HC observed that the recruitment process had been conducted in violation of a government order issued on 23 July 2024, which abolished all previous quotas.
However, the recruitment process for primary school teachers followed the quota system as per the Primary School Teacher Recruitment Rules 2019, which included a 60-percent quota for women, a 20-percent for dependents and a 4-per cent for other categories.
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