Cops foil job-seekers' bid to march towards ministry; three held

Police have charged baton on the job-seekers as they were trying to march towards the Ministry of Public Administration to submit a memorandum demanding reforms of the quota system in the government recruitment examinations, including BCS.

Several thousand job seekers, including students of different universities, brought out a procession from Shahbagh intersection around 11:00am on Wednesday as part of their scheduled programme.

When they reached the High Court intersection, police intercepted them.

Later, the demonstrators took position at the intersection, blocking the road.

At one point, the law enforcers charged baton and lobbed teargas shells to disperse them, leaving seven people injured.

Police also detained three demonstrators, according to a UNB report.

The job-seekers have been on a movement to press home their five-point demand that includes introduction of unified age limit in government jobs, review of quota system in government recruitment process, including Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, filling vacant posts from merit list if the candidates from quota are not found, and fixation of 10 per cent quota instead of existing 56 per cent.