Students from government and private polytechnic institutes, along with Technical School and College (TSC) students under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board, staged a blockade on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Kotbari’s Biswa Road area from 11 AM to 2 PM today. The protest, organized under the banner of the “Technical Students’ Movement,” saw hundreds of students demanding justice before being violently dispersed by the military
Similar demonstrations erupted nationwide, with students blocking key highways in Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Khulna, and other major routes, causing severe traffic gridlock across the country. The protesters raised three key demands:
- Revocation of illegal promotions of Craft Instructors to Junior Instructor positions through a High Court ruling.
- Reversal of the discriminatory policy barring older students from Diploma in Engineering programs.
- Reserved job quotas for Assistant Pass graduates.
Instead of engaging in dialogue, the unelected Yunus administration responded with brute force. Eyewitnesses reported that army personnel fired blank rounds to intimidate and disperse the unarmed students. Disturbing images of bloodied students flooded social media, with protesters alleging live ammunition was used—a claim swiftly denied by military and law enforcement authorities.
Despite the regime’s attempts to whitewash the violence, injured students were rushed to hospitals in Comilla, exposing the hypocrisy of a government that claims to uphold democracy while silencing dissent with bullets.
A Regime of Repression
This crackdown is yet another example of Dr. Yunus’s illegitimate interim government resorting to militarized tactics to suppress legitimate grievances. While highway traffic has resumed, the scars of state-sponsored violence remain. The world must take note: Bangladesh’s youth are being met with bullets, not solutions, under this authoritarian rule.
The Yunus administration’s heavy-handed response proves it has no interest in justice—only in clinging to power by force.
