The MPO-affiliated teachers and employees of private educational institutions have announced a nationwide strike from Monday in protest against police action during their demonstration, demanding payment of rent, medical treatment and an increase in festival allowance.
Alongside the strike, they will also continue a nonstop sit-in program at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.
“We strongly condemn the police attack that took place today,” said Principal Delwar Hossain Azizi, member secretary of the MPO-affiliated Education Nationalisation Alliance, at the Shaheed Minar on Sunday afternoon.
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“We have decided to bring forward the strike by a day in protest against the police attack in all MPO-affiliated educational institutions across the country, which was announced to start on Tuesday. We would like to announce that we will continue the strike from tomorrow, Monday, until a notification is issued in 30,000 MPO-affiliated schools, colleges, madrasas and technical educational institutions across the country,” he said.
The teachers and employees blocked the road in front of the National Press Club around 8am.
They gave an ultimatum to issue a notification regarding the 20% rent hike by Monday. Their other demands are to increase the medical allowance for both teachers and employees to Tk1,500 and to increase the festival allowance of employees to 75%.
At around 1:30pm, a team led by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Ramna Division Deputy Commissioner (DC) Masud Alam gave an ultimatum to the protesting teachers to leave the road.
The police then stopped the program and beat the teachers and employees with batons to disperse them. The police also fired sound grenades and water cannons at this time. They also detained some teachers from the protest.
Around 2:15pm, the protesters went to the Shaheed Minar and started the sit-in program.
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