Engineering students have announced that they will continue their movement, rejecting the government-formed committee as “inappropriate” and demanding the formation of a new one.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in front of Hotel InterContinental, President of the Engineering Rights Movement Mohammad Wali Ullah said the current committee includes the president of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB), making it unsuitable.
He has announced five new demands on behalf of the engineering students:
First, Home Affairs Adviser Jahangir Alam Chowdhury must come before the protesting students and apologise for the brutal and disgraceful attack on the engineering movement students, and he must be held accountable.
Second, the students consider the committee formed earlier via gazette notification to be unrepresentative and thereby reject it. The committee must be reformed immediately to include university teacher representatives and stakeholders of the engineering movement. The presented three-point demands must be accepted swiftly and issued through an executive order via a gazette notification. In this regard, the three relevant advisers – Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, Adilur Rahman, and Syeda Rizwana Hasan – must provide assurance of this.
Third, the government must cover all medical expenses for those injured during the attack and guarantee the safety of all participants in ongoing protests.
Fourth, attackers of student Rokon must be immediately arrested and dismissed.
And fifth, they urged for the removal of DC Masud in his role of authorising and allowing attacks on peaceful student demonstrators.
Wali Ullah went on to add that their sit-in protest will continue until these demands are addressed. Sakibul Haque Lipu, general secretary of the movement, mentioned that nearly 50 students were injured at the hands of the police, with several amongst them hospitalised.
He alleged that police attacked peaceful protesters using batons, tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons, and demanded that those responsible be permanently dismissed and immediately arrested.
Earlier, the government had announced the formation of a committee, chaired by Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, to examine and provide recommendations based on the demands of the protesters. The protests began with a “Long March to Dhaka” with students from BUET and other institutions pressing for three demands: Prohibiting diploma engineers from using the title of “engineer”, barring their promotion to the ninth grade, and reserving entry into tenth grade technical posts exclusively for graduates.