RU students block Dhaka-Rajshahi rail tracks

Rajshahi University (RU) students felled trees and blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi rail tracks to protest the recent High Court verdict reinstating the quota system. 

Students gathered at Paris Road in the city at around 10am on Monday. They started chanting slogans and marching through the RU campus to take up positions near the railroad. Approximately 3,000 RU students are blocking the rail tracks in protest. 

On June 5, the High Court termed illegal a 2018 government circular abolishing the quota system. The decision to reinstate the quota system was also upheld by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on July 4. 

The decision triggered anti-quota protests at universities across the country. On Sunday, protesting students observed a 'Bangla Blockade' to press home their one-point demand, which is to pass a law in the parliament abolishing the quota system in all grades and to provide a minimum quota for the underdeveloped populace.