The protesters moved back onto the campus, lifting a blockade on the busy intersection on Sunday evening around four and a half hours after they began the demonstration when police started using teargas, rubber bullets, batons and water cannon on them.

Police still fired teargas and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters who gathered sporadically on the campus and were responding by hurling brickbats in the wee hours of Monday.

Leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL, the student affiliate of the ruling Awami League, started gathering near the Arts Building on the campus around 2am.

The BCL workers, carrying sticks, attacked and dispersed the protesters around half an hour later.

A number of protesters have been injured in the sporadic clashes. Three injured police personnel were taken away from the scene to hospital.

Awami League Joint General Secretary Janhangir Kabir Nanak came to the scene around 1:15am and told the protesters that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was aware of the issue.

He said General Secretary Obaidul Quader would sit with the protesters at 11am on Monday at Hasina’s behest and asked the demonstrators to choose a place for the meeting.

He alleged some anti-government elements infiltrated the protesters and were spreading rumours.

The protests, however, continued as his comments failed to pacify the demonstrators.

Some of the injured at hospital.

A Dhaka University student, Abu Bakr Siddique, suffered injuries near the eyes when police opened fire on the protesters.

The third-year student of Bangla department was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

A witness from the DMCH said he saw at least 50 injured protesters taking treatment at the hospital.

The bdnews24.com correspondent at the scene saw police charging baton on a group of protesters on the campus and dragging three to four of them towards Shahbagh Police Station around 1:15am on Monday.

The demonstrators took to hospital at least 10 of their fellows injured in the clash at the time.

Female students take to the street in the wee hours of Monday.

Around 15 minutes later, hundreds of female students from Sufia Kamal Hall and Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall took to the street in front of the Arts Building, demanding the authorities take steps over the police action.

The Bangladesh-Kuwait Maitree Hall students had to break the gate of the hall to get out.

Students at the other halls, including those for female students, started to demonstrate inside the buildings.

The demonstrators alleged leaders of Bangladesh Chhatra League locked the gates of the residential halls so that no one else can join the protests.

Some female students from Sufia Kamal Hall blocked the High Court-Bangabazar street.

“We will be on the streets until our brothers are there. We want answers from the university administration,” said one of them, Ferdous Jahan Onti.

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Md Akhtaruzzman told bdnews24.com he had warned police not to do ‘excess’ or attack any student.

A group of protesters tore down the main gate of the VC’s house around 1:45am on Monday.

They vandalised window glasses before going on the rampage inside the house.

bdnews24.com Staff Correspondent Masum Billah said from the scene that the protesters, including some junior BCL activists, dragged furniture out of the house onto the lawn and the street in front of the house.

The protesters later set fire to the furniture on the lawn and the street.

They also torched a car in front of the house.

The protesters under the banner of ‘Council to Protect Bangladesh General Students’ Rights’ took position at the Raju Memorial Sculpture on the Dhaka University campus around 11pm on Sunday.

Addressing the gathering, Dhaka University student Hasan Al Mamun, the convenor of the council, announced an indefinite strike at all educational institutions across the country from Monday.

Later, the protesters spread out on the campus and vandalised several vehicles.

Farhan Tanvir Chowdhury, a fourth-year microbiology student of the university, said the protesters attacked him and thrashed his camera when he tried to take their photos.

Around a thousand protesters marched to the Shahbagh intersection and took position there at 2:30pm, halting traffic in the area.

They said they would not leave the street until parliament announced reforms to the quota system.

Police brought in water cannons but did not try to disperse the demonstrators until the evening.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Maruf Hossain Sarder said in the afternoon they had requested the protesters not to create public sufferings.

Police teargas and charge baton to disperse students and jobseekers who blocked the streets at the busy Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka on Sunday demanding reform to the quota system in government jobs.

Police were diverting vehicles at Matsya Bhaban, TSC and Science Laboratory areas.

The 20th session of the 10th parliament started by the time.

Police started firing teargas and charging baton on the protesters around 8pm.

Five journalists were also injured in the police attack. They are Fahim Reza Noor of Dhaka Tribune, Asifur Rahman of Prothom Alo, Emran Hossain of UNB, Kamruzzaman Reza of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha and Tarek Hasan Nirjhor of bdnews24.com.

The law enforcers also detained some of the protesters at the time.

Chased away onto the Dhaka University campus, some of the protesters gathered flammable objects on the street and set fire to those in front of the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Police teargas and charge baton to disperse students and jobseekers who blocked the streets at the busy Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka on Sunday demanding reform to the quota system in government jobs.

Police pushed them back further onto the campus by firing teargas at regular intervals. They also fired into the air.

A group of activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League attacked the protesters when they moved back towards the TSC.

The BCL adherents also snatched and broke a mobile phone of a journalist when he was filming the incident.

The journalist, Saiful Islam Khan of daily Jugantor, said BCL Mohsin Hall unit Vice-President Syed Ashiqur Rahman assaulted him when he identified himself.

Police teargas and charge baton to disperse students and jobseekers who blocked the streets at the busy Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka on Sunday demanding reform to the quota system in government jobs.

BCL leaders Motaher Hossain Prince, general secretary of its Dhaka University unit, Al Nahian Khan Joy, legal affairs secretary of the BCL central committee, and BCL Publicity Secretary Saif Babu were there.

Prince told reporters they “only stopped the protesters who had tried to vandalise the TSC”.

Protests by youngsters calling for the quota reforms have been continuing for some time. On Mar 14, the protesters attempted to deliver a five-point petition to the Secretariat, but the police dispersed the demonstration and made several arrests.

Facing protests by the jobseekers demanding an overhaul of the system, the public administration ministry announced a decision relaxing it on Mar 6, but the demonstrations continued. The ministry later clarified the decision.

According to the quota system, 56 percent posts are reserved for different quotas, including 30 percent for children of freedom fighters, 10 percent each for women and particular districts, 5 percent for small ethnic groups, and 1 percent for people with disabilities.

"Parliament is now in session," one of the organisers of the protests, Md Ujjal Mia, told bdnews24.com. “We want parliament to announce quota reforms in this session. We will not stop our demonstration until reforms are announced.”

The protesters burned an effigy of Public Administration Senior Secretary Md Mozammel Haque Khan.

“The prime minister said any seats still vacant after filling those up from quota candidates would be filled based on merit,”Ujjal said. “But then the public administration ministry says another quota would fill those seats. We strongly object.”

Another protest leader, Mamun, told bdnews24.com: “Parliament is in session. We will see what they people in parliament do for the people.”

“We will clear the road once parliament decides in our favour. Our protest is completely non-violent. We will not retaliate even if they shoot us,” he said in the afternoon.

[Additional reporting by Masum Billah and Kazi Mobarak Hossain]