At least 60 students were injured as police swung into action to disperse university students and job seekers staging demonstrations on Dhaka-Aricha highway demanding reform of the existing quota system in government service.

Witnesses said some 2000 students under the banner of Sadharan Chhatra Odhikar Sangrakkhan Parishad, (Bangladesh General Students’ Right Protection Council), brought out a procession around 9:00am from the central library of the university and put up barricade on the Dhaka-Aricha highway around 10 am, disrupting traffic on the busy road.

At one stage, police charged baton, lobbed tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse them that triggered a chase and counter-chase.

Sixty students were injured during the police action and they were taken to Enam Medical College Hospital.

Students of different universities across the country have been staging demonstrations in their respective institutions since Sunday demanding that the exiting quota system in public service be reformed.

The students and job seekers started the movement on February 17 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.