The students of all government and non-government engineering universities across Bangladesh started observing a complete shutdown from Thursday.
They are boycotting all academic activities including classes and examinations demanding reforms in the recruitment and promotion system of engineers in the public service and protesting at the attack on them.
Considering public suffering, they decided not to block the Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka on Thursday, said student leaders.
Earlier on Wednesday night, till around 10:30pm, they blocked the intersection after at least 18 people were injured in a clash while the police charged batons and fired teargas shells on the students same day when they were marching towards the state guesthouse Jamuna.
The government, on the day, formed a committee to review the rationality of the demands while the students, rejecting the committee, made some fresh demands, including the formation of a new committee, an apology from the home affairs adviser for the attack, and action against the police personnel involved in attacking the students.
The students, under the banner of Engineer鈥檚 Rights Movement, also announced the 鈥榗omplete shutdown of engineers鈥� until their demands would be met.
The movement president M Wali Ullah told 抖阴精品 on Thursday morning that they were observing the shutdown by boycotting all academic activities.
鈥榃e will not block Shahbagh today,鈥� he said and added that they would hold a press conference at 5:00pm on Thursday at the IEB office in Dhaka to announce their next course of action.
On Thursday morning, the Shahbagh intersection was seen as usual without any blockade programme.
The campus of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology was found almost deserted.聽
Meanwhile a meeting between the adviser to the ministries of power, energy and mineral resources, road transport and bridges and railways Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan and the protesting students on Wednesday night failed to bring any decision.
The adviser, who termed the attack on students as unexpected, is scheduled to meet the stakeholders for solutions of the situation.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Sheikh Md Sajjad Ali went to Shahbagh intersection at about 10:30pm where he expressed his sorrow to the protesting students over the incident.
He also said that they would form a committee to probe the incident.
In solidarity, engineering university students blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi highway in Rajshahi, the Sylhet-Sunamganj highway in Sylhet and different busy city roads in Chattogram on Wednesday.
The students demanded that all the candidates must pass a recruitment examination and hold at least a BSc (honours) degree to enter into the ninth grade public jobs in engineering, promotions through quotas are not allowed, no promotion can be granted even by creating equivalent positions under different titles, the abolition of the 100 per cent quota for diploma engineers in 10th-grade posts, opening these positions to all eligible candidates, restriction on the use of the title 鈥榚ngineer鈥�.