Students from Rajshahi University's engineering and agriculture faculties blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in Rajshahi on Thursday to protest the police crackdown on engineering students in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Around 11:00am, engineering students began a sit-in protest in front of the university's Fourth Science Building. Later, students from the agriculture faculty also expressed solidarity and joined the protest.
After the sit-in protest, the students brought out a rally and blocked the highway in front of the main gate of the university around 1:00pm, where they held a gathering. After staying there for about half an hour, they ended the programme.
During the protest, the students chanted various slogans expressing their anger and solidarity, including: "We will not let our brothers' blood go in vain", "The agriculturists have arrived, the streets are next", "Ninth and tenth later, spell the engineering first", and "Engineers have no fear, we haven't left the streets".
Sifat Abu Saleh, a student of the Department of Information and Communication Engineering and the chief RU organiser of the movement for engineering rights, said, "Many of our fellow students were injured in yesterday's police attack during the 'Long March to Dhaka' programme. A country that fails to give due respect to its engineers can never reach the pinnacle of progress."
Ahmed Hasan, an engineering student, said, "The government has been neglecting the three-point demand from the very beginning. Yesterday, as part of the 'Long March to Dhaka', when the engineering students began to march towards the chief adviser's residence Jamuna, the police launched a disgraceful attack. The home adviser must publicly apologise for this incident."
On Wednesday, students of RU and RUET staged a protest by blocking the highway at Talaimari intersection in Rajshahi in response to the police action.
On 24 August, students from RUET, RU, and Pabna University of Science and Technology (PUST) also blocked the highway for two hours, pressing their three-point demand.
The engineering students' demands are: recruitment in the ninth grade should be done only for BSc engineers without any quota, recruitment in the tenth grade should be open to everyone, allowing BSc engineers to apply, no one without an engineering degree should be allowed to use the title "Engineer"; and the title "Technician" should be designated for diploma holders.
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