Protesters seeking an overhaul of the existing quota system have postponed their demonstrations till the first week of May, after the government agreed to a scrutiny of the norms in place. After holding an hour-long meeting with the ruling party leaders and ministers, including AL general secretary Obaidul Quader, the protesters agreed to postpone their demonstrations till May 7. “We discussed the issue with the protesters and they have agreed to keep their programme suspended until May 7. During this time the government will scrutinise the existing quota system,” said Quader.

Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, made the announcement at his secretariat office in presence of the protest leaders.

The minister had called them to the meeting after the overnight protests in Dhaka that left more than 100 injured and spread to all major campuses across the country.

A 20-member delegation, led by Hasan Al Mamun, coordinator of the protest platform—Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Forum—the represents the students and jobseeking youth, joined the talks with the minister yesterday afternoon.

The minister also criticised the attack on the residence of Dhaka University vice-chancellor and called upon the law enforcers to take stern action against those involved.

However, the moment the 20-member delegation reached DU campus around 8pm, where the protests were still on, the demonstrators rejected to comply with the postponement decision taken earlier. As a result, factions have surfaced among the protesters and scattered protests continued until 9:30. Although the factions decided to hold ground on the DU campus, they ultimately decided to give up and leave the campus over reports of ‘armed outsiders’ entering the campus. Our DU correspondent reported of over several hundred outsiders, wearing helmets and armed with sharp weapons, iron rods, and sticks, entering the campus around 9:45pm. However, no reports of untoward incidents were reported afterwards.

Meanwhile, in an emergency syndicate meeting last night, the DU authorities formed a body to probe the vandalism at VC’s complex and asked it to submit a report in two weeks.

Earlier, cabinet secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said that the public administration ministry will scrutinise the existing quota system in the recruitment process, only for government jobs.

“To stop the mass protest against the existing quota system, the ministry will scrutinise the matter after getting direction from the higher-ups in the government,” he told reporters, during the regular briefing after the cabinet meeting yesterday.

The cabinet meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office yesterday, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in

the chair.

“After a scrutiny of the system, a report would be placed before the cabinet soon,” he said.

During an unscheduled discussion with the Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the government introduced the quota system to provide jobs for the underprivileged, as per the country’s Constitution.

“We don’t understand why youths are demonstrating against the quota system. It is unfortunate,” the Premier was quoted as having said by a Cabinet minister.

“I don’t understand why the residence of the vice-chancellor of Dhaka University was vandalised. I don’t find any relationship between vandalising the VC’s residence and the quota movement. The

law enforcement agencies should find out who vandalised the VC’s residence and why,” she said

“The PM asked the authorities concerned, especially the public administration ministry, to explain the existing quota system,” the minister said.

In February last year, the government decided to fill

up vacant posts in the cadre service from the merit list,

if no candidate was found from among freedom

fighters, their children and grandchildren, women and ethnic minorities.

The government had taken the decision as there were not enough candidates to fill up the 30 per cent quota for freedom fighters, their children and grandchildren, women and ethnic minorities in the cadres of the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS).

There are at least 5,000 reserved posts of cadres of the BCS exams that are lying vacant, as there is no candidate from the quota for freedom fighters.

The existing policy of the quota system has been highly criticised by civil society members and intellectuals. On Sunday, job-seekers and the students of Dhaka University (DU) staged a demonstration in Shahbagh, demanding quota system reforms, where the police charged batons and lobbed tear-gas shells, injuring many. In 2013, a number of jobseekers and students organised a mass protest against the quota system.