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Urging the quota protesters not to be abused as political tools of anyone, Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Friday said that their party was always sincere about the logical demand of the country’s people.

‘No logical demand was ever ignored by the Awami League. The party is always working to build a welfare and prosperous state by bearing the hopes and aspirations of the people,’ he said in a statement.

 ‘We call upon the young students not to be abused as political tools. At the final hearing, lawyers in favour of the agitating students have the opportunity to present their arguments further,’ Quader, also the road transport and bridges minister, said.

Mentioning that the apex court of the country would resolve the matter after final hearing, he hoped that the court would take into account the grievances of the agitating students during the final hearing and would pronounce a realistic final judgment and the matter would be settled.

‘We urge the agitators to keep patience. At the same time, I request again to avoid all such programmes that may cause suffering to people and return to the educational institutions as per the court’s instructions,’ the minister said. 

He said that the Appellate Division gave a four-week status quo on the judgment of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court on keeping quota in government jobs.

‘After this order of the Appellate Division, there is no effectiveness of the judgment of the High Court Division now. So, there is no justification for the students’ movement to continue. The evil spirits of the anti-liberation forces have entered this movement,’ he said.

The AL general secretary said that the order of the Appellate Division was in favour of the students, while the continuation of their movement after this proved that a vested quarter was provoking the movement to materialise their political agenda.

‘If the students continue this movement, the suffering of the commoners will increase. If the people become hostage to this movement, they will lose confidence in the students,’ he said.

The minister said that an identified political quarter was trying to gain advantage by creating conflicts between the students and the people.

‘We don’t believe that all soft-minded students want to violate the directives of the apex court of the country. Only the politically motivated ones are trying to show muscle by ignoring the court’s directives,’ he said.

Quader said that once a movement was waged, the BNP-Jamaat and their allies wanted to use it as a tool, aiming to assume power and they were carrying out their ill-attempts then, capitalising on the quota movement.