Police disperse non-MPO ICT teachers using water cannons

Police on Tuesday dispersed agitating information and communications technology teachers seeking enrolment in monthly-payment order system using water cannon in front of National Press Club in the city.
The teachers began sit-in on the pavement since morning and at one stage a speeding vehicle hit one of the protesters, Aftab Uddin, 35.
He was the ICT teacher of Palashpur High School in Satkhira. He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with injuries at his jaw, chest, hand and heel.
The agitating teachers then blocked the busy road, witnesses said.
As police requested them to free the road, they insisted for an assurance from education minister on their demand visiting them in person.
Later, police dispersed them using water cannon.
Shahbagh police officer-in-charge Abu Bakr Siddique told New Age that the teachers had blocked the road after a teacher was injured being hit by a bus.
‘He was immediately taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, but they blocked the busy road’, he said.
‘Police just dispersed the agitators to ease the traffic,’ he said.
Ashiquzzaman, the president of the Non-MPO ICT Teachers Association, which started demonstration at the Press Club since Sunday, told reporters that the teachers were in a peaceful demonstration, but police ousted them charging water cannon.
He said the ICT teachers at the schools across the country were not given a penny although the government made ICT a mandatory subject at school level.
He demanded an assurance from education minister on their demand visiting them in person.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.com