HSC protesters briefly block Shahbagh, warn of fresh Secretariat march if minister fails to resign by 10pm

Highlights:

• Students block Shahbagh for around 90 minutes, causing major traffic disruption
• Protesters warn of fresh ‘Long March to Secretariat’ if minister does not resign by 10pm
• Road blockade withdrawn to ease public suffering, protesters say
• Education minister’s resignation demand revived despite revised six-point charter
• Students announce fresh protest from Science Lab at 10am tomorrow if demand unmet
• Shahbagh traffic resumes after protesters suspend programme
• Earlier delegation submitted revised demands at Secretariat after talks
• Police had earlier blocked protesters at Shikkha Bhaban during march
• One group ended protest after talks, another moved to Shahbagh

Protesting Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinees withdrew their blockade of the Shahbagh intersection this evening (15 July) after demonstrating for around one and a half hours, but warned they would launch another “Long March to the Secretariat” tomorrow (16 July) unless Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon resigns by 10pm.

The students blocked the busy intersection from around 6pm, disrupting traffic before leaving the road at about 7:30pm, allowing vehicular movement to resume.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Dhaka City College student Farhan Uddin said the blockade was withdrawn to ease public suffering caused by the traffic disruption, but their demands remained unchanged.

He said if the education minister does not resign by 10pm, the protesters will begin another “Long March to the Secretariat” from the Science Laboratory intersection at 10am tomorrow (16 July).

Earlier in the day, HSC examinees staged demonstrations at Science Laboratory, Uttara, Mirpur-10 and ECB Chattar under their previously announced “Long March to the Education Ministry” programme.

A group marching from Science Laboratory reached Shikkha Bhaban in the afternoon but was stopped by police barricades before entering the Secretariat.

Following the standoff, a six-member delegation entered the Secretariat and held talks with government officials, where they submitted a revised six-point charter of demands.

The new charter omitted the earlier demand for the education minister’s resignation and instead called for an optional retake examination for candidates affected by adverse weather, counting the higher score between the original and retake examinations as the final result, awarding full marks for erroneous questions, ensuring adequate preparation time before any retake examinations, taking sudden changes in question patterns into account during evaluation, and making examination centres more student-friendly.

However, after the delegation returned, a section of the protesters rejected the outcome of the meeting, moved to Shahbagh and resumed demonstrations, once again demanding the education minister’s resignation before eventually suspending the programme for the day.