Will take legal action if quota protesters continue to block roads: DMP

DMP Additional Commissioner (Crime and Ops) KH Mahid Uddin said today that they would take legal action if quota protesters continued to block the roads.

He said there was no logic in the movement after the Supreme Court yesterday issued a status quo on the High Court order that reinstated quotas in government jobs.

“We are pledge-bound. The Dhaka Metropolitan Police are not only for them [students]. We have accountability to the city dwellers,” he said in reply to a query about whether police would go for action if students caused public suffering by blocking roads.

He urged the students not to block roads, showing respect to law and SC.

“They were on the roads for last 10 days and we considered their issues professionally. But if they do not obey our call, it is an offence as per the law and constitution,” he said while briefing reporters at the DMP media centre.

“We have sympathy and love for the students. But we have to be respectful to the High Court … We are requesting that no programmes be held that cause suffering to the people,” he said.

“I think the latest order of the SC goes in favour of the students,” the police official added.

Students and jobseekers have been protesting for about 10 days, blocking roads in different parts of the capital including Shahbagh, Science Lab and Karwan Bazar Bazar demanding reform of the quota system for government jobs.