Some 10 people were wounded when police swooped on the protesting unemployed nurses in the capital's Shahbagh intersection on Wednesday.
Seven protesters were also detained by the police for their alleged move to trigger traffic tailbacks in the city by blocking the road during the peak time.
The trouble erupted at about 1:15pm when police, wearing vests and helmets, along with water cannon came to intervene to clear the protesters who staged agitation halting vehicular movements through the intersection.
Police and witnesses said several hundreds of unemployed nurses staged a sit-in demonstration at Shahbagh intersection at about 10:45am demanding recruitment of senior nurses based on academic seniority instead of advertisement in print media.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) published an advertisement on Monday last for hiring 3,616 senior staff nurses under the ministry of health and family welfare and the protesting nurses wanted that the advertisement be cancelled.
Talking to the FE, Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station Abu Bakar Siddique said a group of unemployed nurses under the banner of Bangladesh Diploma Unemployed Nurses Association (BDUNA) and Bangladesh Graduate Nurses Society (BGNS) staged a sit-in demonstration at Shahbagh intersection at about 10:45am.
"We requested them (protesters) several times to clear the streets for traffic movements but they did not respond which had prompted us to take action," he said.
During the protest, BGNS General Secretary Nahida Akter said nurses used to be recruited based on their academic batches from 2006 until 2013. As a result, the academically senior nurses would get promotion and the juniors would not even apply for that.
"I have waited since 2006 without applying for the senior post. Now they say they will hold tests for the promotion. Due to the new PSC system, I will be able to take the tests only once," she said.
"Despite having all the qualifications, why did I wait so long then?"
Shahana Parveen, another protester, said the PSC system would also create a scope for unethical transaction of money like other public posts, which will put fair appointment system in question.
"We want batch-based appointment system that we experienced for the last several years and we'll go for much tougher movement for realising our logical demand," she added.  
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Source: The Financial Express