Traffic movement on all the major highways in the country were halted for hours on Saturday with long tailbacks due to blockades and demonstrations by students of different universities with the support of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islam.
The students were staging demonstrations demanding cancelation of quota system.
Traffic on roads in the capital city of Dhaka also remained at standstill for hours as the protestors staged demonstrations putting blockades on different roads surrounding the Dhaka University campus.
Due to gridlock, thousands of people had to experience untold sufferings as thousands of vehicles carrying them had to remain stuck on the highways for hours.
Witnesses said, thousands of students from Rajshahi University, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, and Begum Rokeya University briefly blocked the Dhaka-Rajshahi, Dhaka-Tangail, and Dhaka-Rangpur highways to protest the reinstatement of the quota system in government jobs.
RU students started their protest march from the campus and took position at the Paris Road area around 10:00am. The protesters left the highway around 12:00pm.
Students of Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University started their protest in Ashekpur Bypass area around 10:30am. The protesters left the highway around 12:00pm as announced earlier.
Their demonstration stopped vehicular movement on the highway causing severe traffic snarl with about 20-kilometre long tailback.
A large number of law enforcers were seen present at the scene, reports our Tangail correspondent.
Meanwhile, students from Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur blocked Dhaka-Rangpur highway's Modern Mor area, causing severe traffic disruption.
Students marched from the university's Bangabandhu Mural at 12:00pm to start the protest chanting anti-quota slogans.
Officer-in-Charge Rabiul Islam of Tajhat Police Station said that the protesters vacated the highway after staying there for some time. Traffic movement is now normal, he said around 2:00pm.
On Friday, students from Chittagong University, Khulna University, Haji Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University in Dinajpur, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University in Gopalganj, and Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University in Tangail staged sit-ins, protests, rallies, and road blockades.
The development comes as anti-quota protests intensified across the country in the last couple of days.
On Thursday, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court decided to uphold until further orders the June 5 High Court verdict that reinstated the quota system after terming illegal a 2018 government circular that abolished it.
Meanwhile, the protestors on Saturday declared further blockade programme on major highways of the country and important intersections of the capital today (Sunday).
The announcement of a tougher movement came on Saturday before they lifted the blockade from the Shahbagh intersection in the evening.
Nahid Islam, one of the organisers, said they would hold blockade programmes at Shahbagh, Science Lab, New Market, Chankarpul, Motijheel and others areas.
Besides, students from other districts in the country will also block the highways adjacent to their educational institutions.
"We are calling the Bangla blockade," he added.
