Class boycott from Monday if quota gazette not issued

DHAKA: Bangladesh General Students' Right Protection Council announced that academic activities in all the colleges and universities will be suspended from Monday (May 14, if the government doesn’t publish the gazette on repealing quota system in public service jobs within 5:00pm Sunday (May 13). Faruq Hassan, joint convener of the student rights body, came up with the announcement at a press briefing before the central library of Dhaka University (DU). Earlier, hundreds of students, under the banner of Bangladesh General Students' Right Protection Council, joined a rally brought out on the DU campus, around 11:30am. Convener Hasan Al Mamun, Joint Conveners Rashed Khan and Nurul Haque Nur led the rally, to protest the dilly-dallying of the authorities concerned to publish the gazette. Similar agitation rallies also have been brought out in Jahangirnagar University (JU) and Rajshahi University (RU). However, the students earlier gave the government ultimatums twice for publishing the gazette. In wake of the students’ adamant movement, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 11 told the national parliament that the public service government jobs won’t have any types of quota. But, the government didn’t make any formal move regarding this yet.