City traffic plunged into chaos yesterday after students demanding a reform in the quota system blocked Shahbagh intersection for over five hours since afternoon, causing immense sufferings to commuters.
Police fired rubber bullets, used water cannons and lobbed teargas canisters on the protesters around 8:00 pm to clear the busy intersection.
One of the protesters, Abu Bakar Siddique, a student of Bangla at Dhaka University, was hit by a rubber bullet in the forehead. Several other people, including five journalists, were injured.
Law enforcers chased the demonstrators into the Dhaka University campus, lobbed teargas shells and charged baton on them. Both the sides threw brickbats at each other in the TSC area, witnesses said.
A few minutes later, a group of around 50 Chhatra League men, led by DU BCL General Secretary Motahar Hossain Prince, swooped on the protesters.
Later, police arrested five people from the spot.
Earlier around 2:30 pm, more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered there, demanding a reform in the quota system in public service recruitments, disrupting vehicular movement from the intersection to major roads.
Traffic in several other parts of the country was also disrupted for several hours as students of Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Bangladesh Agricultural University and several other institutions in Mymensingh blocked roads and highways in front of the universities over the same demand.
In the capital’s Karwan Bazar and Shahbagh areas, many ambulances were seen trapped in the traffic jam as the demonstrators did not allow even ambulances to pass. Some of the ambulances took the wrong side of the road towards Shahbagh where two major hospitals are located.
Several kilometer-long tailbacks developed on major roads and gradually spilled over into other areas. Police had to divert traffic on some roads to ease gridlock.
The city residents returning home from office were the worst sufferers.
“It took me over three hours to reach Farmgate by a bus from the court in Old Dhaka,” said a lawyer at the court.
“We suffered a lot as it was hot and humid inside the vehicle.”
He said it usually takes around an hour to reach Farmgate from there.
