Students start fire with a tyre blocking the Shahbagh crossing in Dhaka on Saturday demanding 35 years as the age limit for government jobs. — Sanaul Haque

Several thousand former and current students on Saturday blocked roads in the city’s Shahbagh intersection demanding the age limit for seeking government jobs be raised to 35 from the existing 30.
The students took to the streets 11:00am and blocked roads for three hours in Shahbagh intersection. The demonstrators had earlier formed a human chain at 9:00am in front of the National Museum.
Bangladesh General Students Council, a platform of the general students of different public and private universities and colleges, winded up their three-hour demonstrations threatening the government of tougher agitations including self-immolation unless the demand was not met in a week.
The organisation president, Mohammad Istiak Hossain, a Dhaka University student, said, ‘We will go for tougher agitations including shut down of the universities and colleges across the country, fast unto death and self-immolation  emulation if the demand is not met.’
The age-limit for applying for public services must be raised, as the students complete their university education at 27/28 years and they get only two or three years for preparing for government jobs, he explained.
The age-limit of job seekers is 35 in many countries like United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia and India, argued the council general secretary Al Ameen Raju, a Jagannath University student.
The students said that the age-limit for entry in the public services should be increased as the government had already increased the retirement age for public servants to 59 years from 57.
During the blockade, the students set fire to several tyres and traffic movement through the intersection remained suspended causing huge tailbacks on many other city streets.
Around 1:10pm, the demonstrators barred a Dhaka University bus passing the area resulting in a scuffle between the demonstrators and the university students.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner (Ramna zone) Shibli Noman said that several hundred students blocked the intersection around 11:00am, halting transport movement on all the key roads leading to Shahbagh.
Many city dwellers suffered on the roads as traffic congestion spilled over to Kantaban, Matsya Bhaban and Ruposhi Bangla Hotel areas.
The organisers said that they had staged demonstrations at 12 places across the country including Khulna, Rajshahi, Dinajpur on December 27, 2012 pressing for the demand.
On September 2, 2012 the parliamentary standing committee on the public administration ministry suggested that the maximum age should be 32 years, instead of the existing 30 years, to be eligible to apply for public services.
The speaker, Abdul Hamid, in the parliament session on January 31, 2012 to extend urged the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to raise the maximum age for seeking government jobs.