Polytechnic students to meet govt; railway blockade suspended till 11 am

Following the intervention of Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus and a call from the Education Adviser, students of polytechnic institutes protesting for their six-point demands have packed up all their programmes until 11:00am for today.

Further decision will made after a meeting at the Ministry of Education at 11.00am on Thursday (April 17).

Zubair Patwary, representative of the Technical Students' Movement, confirmed this.

"If the meeting yields positive results, the railway blockade programme will be withdrawn. However, if it fails to produce a fruitful outcome, a new programme will be announced," he said.

Earlier, in a video message posted on Wednesday night (April 16) on the Facebook page of the Technical Students' Movement Bangladesh, central representatives Masfiq Islam and Zubair Patwary confirmed their planned course of action.

In the video message, Masfiq Islam stated, "A final decision regarding the six-point demand and other issues will be made during the meeting. Based on that decision, the next course of action will be announced for polytechnic institutes across the country. All ongoing programmes in the polytechnic institutes will remain suspended during the meeting."

On the other hand, Zubair Patwari, one of the student movement's representatives, said, “Certain third parties and malicious groups in Bangladesh are attempting to discredit and exploit our movement. Today, you must firmly clarify your stance and remain on high alert. Make it clear that you oppose any attempts to involve you in immoral or disruptive activities. We are not against the government—we aim to carry forward our movement through cooperation with it.”

Notably, on Wednesday at 10:00am, polytechnic students nationwide staged a road blockade, causing heavy traffic congestion. In Cumilla, 35 students were injured in a police and army lathicharge. Although a railway blockade was announced in response, it was later called off via a midnight video message.