Staff Correspondent:

Police fired tear gas and sound grenades, charged batons, and used water cannon to disperse students of engineering universities from the Minto Road, in front of the InterContinental Dhaka, as they marched towards the chief adviser’s official residence, Jamuna, on Wednesday (August 27 ) to press home their three-point demand.

Traffic is back to normal on the Kataban-Press Club route after most of the protesters left Shahbagh around 3:30pm. However, the road from Shahbagh to Bangla Motor is still blocked, according to our reporter on the scene.

A group of student protesters is still gathered in front of the Hotel Intercontinental.

One of the students, Jihadul Haque from Buet, said the protesters’ three demands should be met through an official notification, and that legal action should be taken against those who threatened to kill Engineer Rokonuzzaman Rokon.

Md Sabbir Ahmed, coordinator of the Engineers’ Rights Movement, said the group is waiting to meet with three advisers (energy, law, and environment).

He also said some students were injured and hospitalised after police used batons and tear gas on them.

We are demanding a fair trial, he added.

Following a clash with police, the protesters, who earlier in the morning had blockaded the Shahbagh intersection for the second day, took position Minto Road, in front of the InterContinental Dhaka — creating a tense situation.

During the chaos, chase and counter-chase took place between police and students while multiple sound grenades went off, according to witnesses.

Many of the students also left Minto Road and were seen moving back towards Shahbagh at around 2pm following the police action.

At around 2:20pm, police were seen chasing a large group of protesters from the InterContinental intersection towards Paribagh intersection.

Earlier, as part of their pre-announced “March to Dhaka” programme, the engineering students began occupying the main road at Shahbagh around 11am. The blockade brought traffic to a halt in and around the busy intersection.

Their demands include making entry tests mandatory for all candidates seeking recruitment in the ninth grade of engineering or for posts such as assistant engineer, with eligibility restricted to those holding at least a BSc degree.

Earlier in the morning, leaders of the “Engineers’ Rights Movement” had said that they will begin a march towards the Secretariat if their demands were not met by 1pm. However, after the deadline ended, they started moving towards the State Guest House Jamuna and faced police action.

Around the same time, another group of students from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) tried to go towards the Jamuna and faced police action near the National Press Club area. A chase-counter-chase took place between them at the time.