Dhaka: Job seekers and university students blocked Shahbagh intersection in the city on Sunday afternoon demanding that the existing quota system in government recruitment tests, including BCS examination, be reformed, bringing traffic around the intersection to a halt.

As part of the countrywide programme announced earlier by Bangladesh Shadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad (Bangladesh General Students’ Right Protection Council), students of different city universities and colleges, and job seekers gathered in front of the Dhaka University Central Library in the afternoon.

From there, they brought out a rally around 2:30 pm which paraded different important points of the university.

Later, they marched towards Shahbagh to stage a sit-in programme there to press for their demand.

Several thousand protesters blocked the intersection around 3pm, halting the vehicular movement in roads around the intersection and inflicting sufferings on the city dwellers.

Law enforcers remained deployed in the area but they did not take any action against the demonstrators.

Speaking on the occasion, Hasan Al Mamun, convener of the parishad, said they will continue their movement until their demands are met.

On February 17, students and job seekers started the movement to press for their five-point demand that include introduction of unified age limit in government jobs, review of quota system in government recruitment process, including Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, stopping taking benefit by job seekers under the same quota, filling vacant posts from merit list if the candidates from quota are not found and fixation of 10 percent quota instead of existing 56 percent.