Quota protesters block rail line in Mohakhali, disrupting all rail connections from Dhaka

Students protesting for quota reforms have blocked rail lines in Dhaka’s Mohakhali, disrupting rail connections from the capital to the rest of the country.

Train service came to a halt when the students blocked the Mohakhali Rail Gate area around 2pm, said Anowar Hossain, superintendent of the Dhaka District Railway Police, reports bdnews24.com. 

Students from BAF Shaheen College, Government Titumir College Southeast University, and the Civil Aviation High School began gathering in the area around 1:30pm. Around 3pm, police went to the area and attempted to convince them to move, but the protesters refused to do so.

The Dhaka-bound Banalata Express and the Rajshahi-bound Silk City Express are stuck on the tracks nearby. Many of the passengers have disembarked the trains and walked away.

“The rail line has been blocked in Mohakhali,” said Kamalapur Station Master Anwar Hossain. “Two trains are stuck there. Unless they are allowed to move, the other trains can’t run.”

“We have heard the rail line has been blocked in Mohakhali,” said Ferdous Ahmed Biswas, chief of Kamalapur GRP Police Station. “I don’t know the details of who blocked it. We are going to the scene.”

Students and job seekers have been protesting for two weeks after the High Court ruled that a 2018 notice scrapping the quota system for first and second class government jobs was illegal. At a press conference on Sunday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made it clear that the issue of quotas in government jobs would be decided by the courts.

At one point, she said: “Before they started a quota movement, they should have looked at the results to see where each of them had placed! My second question is, why are they so angry at the Liberation War and freedom fighters? The grandchildren of freedom fighters shouldn’t receive a quota? Then who should get them? The grandchildren of Razakars [Pakistani collaborators]?”

The premier’s remarks sparked late-night protests by the movement at several universities. The protesters chanted slogans sarcastically calling themselves ‘Razakars’ and decrying the government as ‘dictatorial’. Some of the slogans were based on slogans chanted during the Liberation War.

On Monday, the quota protester platform called the ‘Anti-Discrimination Student Movement’ and the Bangladesh Chhatra League – the ruling party’s student wing – both conducted duelling programmes in Dhaka.

Clashes broke out between the two sides and at one point the Chhatra League dispersed the quota protesters using violence. Nearly 300 students with injuries sought treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Of them, 12 were hospitalised.

Quota protesters launched a fresh round of protests on Tuesday in Dhaka and other parts of the country, blocking roads and rail lines.