The students of different polytechnic institutes in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country on Tuesday temporarily suspended their protests over job, promotion and quality higher education on the seventh day of their movement.
Earlier on the day, the education ministry also announced that the students would suspend their movement.
The students, who had protested since April 16 to press home their six-point demand and at the attack on students in Cumilla, also said that if their demands would not be met within the time the ministry sought, they would resume their movement.
On April 16, the polytechnic students in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country staged demonstrations by blocking roads, highways and rail tracks and causing huge sufferings of people to press home their demands, including the cancelation of a High Court verdict that allows the promotion of craft instructors to the post of junior instructor.
Under the banner of Karigori Chhatra Andolan, Bangladesh, the protesting students on April 20 urged the government to accept their demands within 48 hours.
They threatened to hold long marches towards Dhaka from different corners of the country.
Against the backdrop, KM Kabirul Islam, secretary of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division under the education ministry, and other senior officials of the ministry and Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh met the representatives of protesting students on Monday at the secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
A press release issued by the ministry on Tuesday said that the division was working on the six-point demands to meet these and already an eight-member committee had been formed comprising the representatives of the ministry, Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh and students.
The committee would submit recommendations and following which the next steps would be taken, the release said.
The protesting students at the meeting announced the suspension of their movement and vowed to keep peaceful environment at their educational institutions, the release added.
Later, Tuesday evening, Karigori Chhatra Andolan, Bangladesh held a press conference at the Dhaka Polytechnic Institute where the central representative of the movement, Mashfiq Islam, announced the suspension of their movement temporarily, saying that the ministry had taken visible actions towards their demands.
鈥業f they do not meet our demands within the time they seek, we will announce tougher movement,鈥� he added.
The students said the ministry sought three weeks for the purpose.
抖阴精品 correspondent in Rajshahi reported that both the academic and administrative activities at government and private polytechnic institutes in Rajshahi division were suspended for the second consecutive day as protesting students kept the entrance gates of the institutes鈥� administrative buildings locked on Tuesday.
At Rajshahi Government Polytechnic Institute, Rajshahi Women Polytechnic Institute and Rajshahi Government Survey Institute, all the entrance gates were locked on Tuesday.