Amid the apex court order for a status quo on the issue of quotas in government jobs, students yesterday vowed to continue their protests against the quota system. Around 12 noon, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court ordered the status quo for four weeks.
This means the recent High Court verdict that reinstated the quota system in government jobs will not be in force for a month, and the 2018 government circular abolishing the quotas will stand for the said period.
The protesting students, however, announced they will press on with their demonstrations until the government forms a commission to reform the quota system and the parliament passes a law to this effect.
Sargis Alam, an organiser of the anti-quota campaign, said, “We’ll relent only if we get word from the highest executive position that the quota system will be reformed through a commission.
“We want the parliament to enact a law reforming the quotas,” he told protesters at the Shahbagh intersection last evening.
Asif Mahmud, another organiser, announced that today’s blockade will begin at 3:30pm.
“Students from universities and colleges across the country will block major intersections in Dhaka along with highways and railways adjacent to their areas.”
After a day’s break, the protesters yesterday resumed the “Bangla Blockade” around 10:30am, occupying key intersections, major highways and rail lines in Dhaka and other parts of the country.
Road and rail communications were snapped, leaving commuters in utter distress. The traffic in Dhaka stood still for long hours, while around 30 trains from the capital ran behind schedule.
‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH’
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, passed the status quo order following two separate petitions, filed by the government and two Dhaka University students, challenging the HC verdict.
The bench also includes Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, Justice Md Shahinur Islam and Justice Kashefa Hussain.
The apex court asked the petitioners to file separate leave-to-appeal petitions and fixed August 7 for a hearing on those.
The chief justice asked the agitators to go back to class and focus on studies.
He expressed hope that all vice-chancellors and heads of the educational institutions will take their students back.
“They [protesting students] took to the streets and raised slogans … What they’ve done can’t be appreciated but I think they’ve done it out of a misunderstanding. They’re our children. On the first day, I said a judgement can’t be made based on slogans,” he said while passing the order.
Considering what has happened so far, enough is enough. … We’ll evaluate the High Court judgment properly if it’s placed before us.
“Only the Appellate Division has the right to examine whether the High Court verdict is correct or not. Why isn’t anyone explaining this to the children? University teachers, who are in prominent positions, [you] tell them [the students] – ‘this is not the way, you must go to the court. If you go to court, the court will see to it … But we can’t do anything until the [HC] verdict is placed before us.”
He thanked the DU students’ lawyer Shah Monjurul Hoque for moving a petition before the Appellate Division against the HC verdict.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, after the order was passed, told reporters that the HC verdict, which declared illegal the cancellation of quotas in first and second-class government jobs, will not remain effective.
Writ petitioners’ lawyer Md Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the government now cannot implement a quota system as per the SC order.
Following a writ petition challenging the legality of quota cancellation, the HC on June 5 declared illegal the 2018 government circular that scrapped the 30 percent quota for the freedom fighters’ children and grandchildren in government jobs.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader also requested protesters to go back to their respective institutions following the status quo and to not cause public sufferings.
BLOCKADE CONTINUED
Several hundred Dhaka University students and jobseekers blocked the Shahbagh intersection around 11:50am. They came to the intersection in a procession from in front of the DU central library and barricaded all nearby roads.
Another group of DU students blocked the Chankharpul intersection around the same time.
Around 11:35, several hundred students of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University blocked the Agargaon intersection and were seen taking position near metro rail station there.
All vehicular movement from Farmgate to Mirpur and Agargaon to Mohakhali remained halted for hours.
The capital’s Science Lab area remained blocked for at least seven hours by students of Dhaka College and nearby institutions. They started their march from the college campus and took position at the intersection around 10:30am.
They were seen barring buses, private cars and rickshaws from moving on the road and allowed only ambulances to pass through.
Most of the blockades were lifted around 7:00-7:30pm.
Outside the capital, the Dhaka-Aricha Highway was blocked for nearly six hours by a group of Jahangirnagar University students, while Comilla University students blocked the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway for four hours in Cumilla’s Kotbari area.
A group of Patuakhali Science and Technology University students blocked the Dhaka-Kuakata Highway at the Payra Bridge point for three hours.
RAIL LINES
Schedules of trains to different destinations from Dhaka were hampered as rail operations remained suspended for five hours due to a blockade at the Karwan Bazar level crossing.
Ferdaous Ahmed Biswas, officer-in-charge of Dhaka Railway Police Station, said rail services were snapped after some students blocked the crossing at 12:00pm. They left around 5:05pm.
The line that goes through Karwan Bazar connects Dhaka with the east, west and even southern parts of the country.
In Chattogram, CU students kept the Dhaka-Chattogram rail line in the Dewanhat area blocked from 11:30am, resulting in at least five trains being stuck at different stations for almost eight hours, the Railways Control Office confirmed.
The Parjatak Express and Cox’s Bazar Express, which left for Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar, were stranded at the Sholoshohor Station, while the Shonar Bangla Express, Mohanagar Probhati Express and a container-loaded freight train could not commence their journey from the Chattogram Station. CU’s shuttle train service was also closed.
The blockades were lifted around 7:00pm.
The protesters later blocked a road in the Tigerpass area, the main thoroughfare of the port city, around 1:00pm.
Meanwhile, students of Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (Duet) staged a sit-in and blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh rail tracks in Gazipur’s Joydebpur.
The protest began in front of the Duet Central Shaheed Minar and later moved to the Joydebpur Junction Railway Station.
PRO-QUOTA
Meanwhile, leaders and activists of the Muktijoddha Sangsad Santan Command staged a brief sit-in around 9:30am in front of the National Museum in the capital’s Shahbagh, demanding the reinstatement of the quota system.
