The protesting students set out from the capital’s Science Laboratory intersection towards the Secretariat and reached in front of the Education Building. There, they came across a police barricade. They are shouting slogans demanding the resignation of the Education Minister.
A group of students blocked the Science Laboratory intersection at around 2:30 pm today. This stopped traffic on the road.
New Market Police Station Officer-in-Charge Mohammad Ayub Hossain told that around 2:35 pm, 50 to 100 students came to the Science Lab intersection. They blocked the road for about 15 to 20 minutes. Later, they set out towards the Secretariat.
These students reached in front of the Education Building through the Dhaka University area at around 4 pm. The police had already set up barricades there. Now the students are standing there demanding the resignation of the Education Minister and shouting various slogans.
A protester in front of the Shiksha Bhavan identified himself as Mehedi Hasan Hamim, an HSC examinee from the capital’s Government Laboratory School. He told Prothom Alo that the education minister has lost his qualifications to hold the post. Every question paper contains mistakes. The minister said, “Those who answered the wrong questions will get full marks, and what will happen to those who did not answer? An exam cannot be held like this. We want his resignation.”
On the other hand, after 1 pm, students started gathering in front of the BNS Center in Uttara in the capital, confirmed to Prothom Alo, Tarek Ahmed Beg, Deputy Commissioner of the Uttara Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
Around 1:30 pm, the students blocked the road in front of the BNS Center in Uttara. As a result of this blockade, traffic movement was stopped on both sides of the road. This created a long traffic jam on the road.
During the blockade, the protesting students kept raising various slogans demanding three points, including the resignation of Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon.
One of the participants in the blockade identified herself as Iqra Islam, an HSC examinee of Shahajuddin Sarkar School and College. She told Prothom Alo, ‘The education minister said chickens from our farm. Are we chickens? That is why we want his resignation.’
Another student identified herself as Md. Mehedi Hasan, an HSC examinee of Cambrian College. She told Prothom Alo, ‘Our movement will continue. We are starting a long march.’
Around 3:40 pm, the students here started the ‘Long March to the Ministry of Education’ program. They walked some distance. Later, they started getting into various vehicles including pickups.
Students protested, blocked roads and rallied in various places in the country including Dhaka and Chittagong throughout the day, expressing anger over the HSC examination being conducted amidst rain and waterlogging, errors in the physics question paper and the quality of the questions. A group of students in Dhaka ended their protest with a new program at around 9:45 pm yesterday.
Regarding the new program, the students said yesterday that they would hold a ‘Long March to the Ministry of Education’ program from 3 pm if today’s scheduled exams were not postponed.
Source: Prothom Alo
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