Medical Assistant Training School (MATS) students today staged a sit-in in front of Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka to press home their four-point demands, including recruitment to vacant 10th-grade positions and creation of more employment opportunities.
They took position there under the banner of the General MATS Student Unity Council around 6:00am.
If their demands are not met, they will start an indefinite hunger strike from noon, they said earlier.
Ahmad Ullah Mansur, a coordinator of the council, told The Daily Star, "The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has assured us of fulfilling our demands. But no specific time has been set. That's why we have decided not to move from our demands."
Last night, the demonstrating students staged a sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar around 10:00pm. But later this morning, they moved to the press club, our staff correspondent reports.
The students threatened to go for a hunger strike after police dispersed them with baton charges and sound grenades when they reached Shikkha Bhaban while attempting to march towards the Secretariat. At least 20 students were injured, eyewitnesses said.
They started their day's protest yesterday, blocking the road from Shahbagh to Dhaka University campus for over five hours since around 11:00am.
The students' other demands include abolishing the Health Professionals Board and forming a new regulatory body named the Medical Education Board of Bangladesh, ensuring higher education opportunities in clinical subjects aligned with the MATS curriculum, and renaming MATS to Medical Institute.
Source: The Daily Star