Student Strife: Chittagong Engineering Protest
In protest against police attacks on engineering students in Dhaka and in support of the three-point demands of the Engineers’ Rights Movement, students in Chittagong blocked roads at Gate 2.
On Wednesday, August 27, several hundred students from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), International Islamic University, Premier University, and Chittagong University participated in the demonstration around 4:30 pm. The protest caused significant traffic congestion on both sides of the busy Gate 2 intersection, which remained blocked by students as of the latest reports.
According to students and local sources, the demonstrators marched from GEC Mor to gather in front of Revolution Park at Gate 2 under the banner of the Engineers’ Rights Movement. Most of the protesters were CUET students who had traveled from the Raozan campus by bus. During the protest, the students raised slogans demanding their rights, causing severe traffic disruption in surrounding areas.
The students explained that as part of the movement, on Monday, students of Begum Rokeya University (BRUR) submitted a memorandum to the Rangpur NESCo office. After their departure, Assistant Engineer and former BUET Electrical Engineering student Rokonuzzaman was called to the office of NESCo Executive Engineer Golam Hossain, where 20–25 diploma-holding officers allegedly harassed Rokon and issued death threats.
In response, on August 26, students from BUET and other engineering universities blocked Shahbagh in Dhaka. After the government failed to address their demands, students again marched from Shahbagh toward Jamuna on August 27. Police used tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons against the demonstrators.
During the protest, students raised slogans such as “In my golden Bengal, there’s no place for inequality,” “Merit, not quota, merit, merit,” “No to discrimination in the name of quota,” “Reform quota system now,” and “Inform the public, bury the quota system.”
Alongside their previously declared three demands, students presented four additional demands: the withdrawal of police officers involved in attacks on students, including Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ramna Division Deputy Commissioner Masud Alam; unconditional apology from the police for the assaults; arrest and dismissal of those who threatened the life of BUET alumnus and NESCo Assistant Engineer Rokonuzzaman; and issuance of an executive order to implement their earlier three-point demands.
Mahfuzar Rahman, a student of CUET’s Civil Engineering Department, said, “Due to the influence of diploma degree holders’ groups, BSc engineers have long been deprived of fairness in promotions and recruitment. They have confined BSc engineers to the 10th grade in government jobs and later promoted them directly to the 9th grade with quotas of 33 percent or more. We have been protesting these injustices for six months. Instead of addressing our demands, they attacked us.”
