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Several hundred Ansar Members of the Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party on Sunday blocked the road in front of the Supreme Court main gate in the capital demanding the regularisation of their jobs.

Urging president Mohammed Shahabuddin and chief adviser to the interim government Professor Muhammad Yunus to meet their one-point demand, they warned that otherwise they would go for an indefinite strike.

‘We do not get paid during the six-month leave every three years. Sometimes the leave continues for more than one year without pay and rations,’ Abdul Hanan, an Ansar member said.

Vehicular movement in the area came to a halt as around 500 Ansar members blocked the road from about 11:30am till 5:00pm, causing traffic congestions in and around areas, including Paltan, Kakrail, and Segun Bagicha. 

Swapan Mia, another Ansar member, said that they got paid on a monthly basis with a per day amount of Tk 535.

‘If we don’t work any day, we don’t get paid for that day,’ he said.

Some Ansar members alleged that they gave bribes up to Tk 5 lakh to join the force and even gave bribe to get rations.

Ansar member Shah Jamal said that although the general Ansar members were deployed to protect all government and private establishments, they were not entitled to government facilities as their job was not regularised. 

‘We have been discriminated for a long time. All the other Ansar members are getting government facilities, including the director general. Only the general Ansar members, the largest manpower in the force, are not getting the facilities. Now that we have got independence we demand our regularisation,’ Shah Alam told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.

The protests among the force members began after the fall of Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 amid a mass uprising led by students.

According to Ansar VDP officials, 98,000–99,000 volunteer trained Ansar members are active in the force with 55,000 now employed in different government and private establishments.

They said that volunteer Ansar members were getting paid by the establishments where they were posted.

Ansar VDP director general Major General AKM Aminul Haque said that he visited the demonstration and would sit with their leaders on the issue.

‘I do not have any authority to regularise them. I have to talk to the home ministry and the decision may come after holding an inter-ministerial meeting,’ Aminul told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.  

Asked about the allegations of taking bribes for their recruitment, he said that they did not appoint them but provided a 90-day training which included the use of non-lethal shot guns for the armed ones.

‘There might be some corruption in getting chances to join the training selection processes,’ the force chief added.