Dhaka, April 26 – Leaders of quota reform movement on Thursday issued an ultimatum to the government for issuing a gazette notification on abolishing the quota system in government job as per the prime minister’s words within April.
Otherwise, they will wage a tougher movement from the next month (May), they came up with these at a press conference on the Dhaka University campus in the morning.
In a written statement Nurul Haq Nur, co convener of the movement also demanded apology from a Bangla daily Daily Janakantha within today 5:00 pm for publishing ‘biased news’ on April 21 in print version against the movement.
“Otherwise the paper will be boycotted from tomorrow (Friday) across the country along with legal step would be taken against the daily” he added
He also said, “A teachers-students view exchanging meeting will be arranged on April 30 on the Dhaka university campus over quota reform”.
They also demanded for withdrawal of all the five cases filed during the quota reform movement within the month and also urged the authorities concerned to find out the real culprits and bring them under justice.
The cases against the unidentified persons are resulting in harassment of innocent students, they claimed. Demanding security of the students on the campus, the leaders also claimed that protesters in all the universities throughout the country are facing various kinds of harassment.
Student leaders of the quota reform movement Rashed Khan, Nurulhaq Nur, Hasan Al Mamun, and Faruk Hossain were present at a press conference among others.
Earlier on April 18, the students issued a seven-day ultimatum for withdrawal of the cases. The five cases were filed with Shahbagh Police Station on April 11 by Dhaka University authorities and police against a huge number of unidentified people.
The cases filed on charge of vandalism, arson and obstructing lawmen to perform their duty during demonstrations over quota reform in public service recruitment and in connection with the attack on DU VC’s residence.
Earlier this month, the country witnessed a widespread movement of students of public and private universities across the country, demanding reforms to the quota system.
The protesters blocked key points in the capital and also roads and highways elsewhere over four days.
Amid the protest, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 11 at National Parliament announced scrapping of the quota system in public service recruitments. Following her announcement protesters called off their movement. – Staff Reporter
