July 10, 2024: Protesters refuse to back down

The protests over the quota system in government jobs showed no signs of slowing down on July 10 as students across the country vowed to continue their movement despite the Supreme Court's order for a four-week status quo.

Around noon, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, ordered that the High Court verdict reinstating the quota system would not come into effect for the time being. This meant that the 2018 government circular abolishing the quotas would remain in force for at least a month.

The five-member bench of the Appellate Division, while issuing the status quo order, urged the students to return to their classrooms and focus on their studies.

Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan described the protests as misguided, saying, "What they've done can't be appreciated, but I think they've done it out of a misunderstanding. They're our children. A judgment can't be made based on slogans."

He stated that only the Appellate Division had the authority to assess the correctness of the High Court ruling and criticised those who, in his view, had failed to explain this to the students.

However, the court's decision did little to pacify the protestors, who insisted they would not relent until the government formed a commission to reform the quota system and the parliament enacted a law to that effect.

Earlier in the day, protesters resumed the "Bangla Blockade," bringing key intersections, major highways, and rail lines across Dhaka and other cities to a standstill.

Several hundred Dhaka University students and job seekers blocked the Shahbagh intersection around 11:50am, arriving in a procession from the DU Central Library.

At the same time, another group blocked the Chankharpul intersection, while students of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University blocked the Agargaon intersection near the metro station. Major routes such as Farmgate to Mirpur and Agargaon to Mohakhali remained closed for hours.

The Science Lab area was under blockade for at least seven hours as students from Dhaka College and nearby institutions took to the streets around 10:30am. They barred all forms of transport except ambulances. Most of the blockades in Dhaka were lifted between 7:00pm and 7:30pm.

Protests erupted outside the capital as well. Jahangirnagar University students blocked the Dhaka-Aricha Highway for nearly six hours, while Comilla University students blocked the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway for four hours in Cumilla's Kotbari area. Patuakhali Science and Technology University students staged a three-hour blockade on the Dhaka-Kuakata Highway at Payra Bridge.

Railway communication also faced disruption across the country. In Dhaka, student protesters blocked the Karwan Bazar level crossing from noon until 5:00pm, cutting off rail connectivity to the east, west, and south of the country. In Chattogram, Chittagong University students blocked the Dhaka-Chattogram rail link in Dewanhat from 11:30am, stranding at least five trains. The CU shuttle train service remained suspended, while the port city's main Tigerpass road was blocked around 1:00pm.

Elsewhere, students from Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET) blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh rail tracks at Joydebpur, starting with a sit-in at their campus before moving to the railway junction.

Meanwhile, pro-quota demonstrators under the banner of the Muktijoddha Sangsad Santan Command staged a brief sit-in around 9:30am in front of the National Museum at Shahbagh, calling for the reinstatement of the quota system.

By the evening, most blockades had been withdrawn, but the message from the protesters remained clear: without concrete steps toward legal and structural reforms, they would not stand down.