It was on the front pages of only a handful of papers; some others went with the latest developments in business and the economy. Some chose to focus on the teachers' action against pension schemes, which had been the cause of serious educational disruptions in the preceding weeks. Many papers had the quota reform movement on the inside folds.
And there was good cause for that.
On July 2, 2024, the student movement demanding the reinstatement of the 2018 abolishment of quotas in government jobs was a temperate one.
The discord had started on June 5 when the High Court declared illegal a 2018 ruling that cancelled quotas for government jobs. Students set an ultimatum for a reversal of the decision.
On that particular day, a Wednesday, the road from Banglamotor to Shahbagh was blocked for an hour in the afternoon. The horror that is Dhaka traffic was made momentarily more horrible. People started getting familiar with the term "Students Against Discrimination".
Students of institutes around the country - Chittagong University, Khulna University, Barisal University, Jahangirnagar University, Jagannath University, etc. - brought out similar processions and held rallies near their campuses.
The then-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, was planning a three-day trip to China, possibly without much of a clue that things would be slightly different when she returned.
But on July 2, most signs pointed towards a resolution. Those who followed such events thought that, just as in 2018, things would be set right and the students would go back home.
There was, after all, a ruler at the top of the food chain who could weigh in on issues behind the scenes, and who was used to having orders followed, whether by different wings of government or the general public.
One Nahid Islam said that they resumed protests as their ultimatum ended on June 30.
Another student, by the name of Asif Mahmud, demanded reinstatement of the 2018 ruling, after which the government could reform the quota distributions in a logical manner.
Even Freedom Fighters' children, beneficiaries of a 30%-quota, made moderate noise. Members of the Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sontan Sangsad gathered at the Raju Memorial Sculpture, not far from the students, and said that since the students were unhappy about the 30% quota, the government could reduce it to a more acceptable level.
There was discord, but animosity or violence was absent.
All that would change in a matter of days.
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