Dhaka, June 19 -- Protesting government employees have staged a blockade at the Secretariat -- the nerve centre of Bangladesh's administration -- to demand the scrapping of the Government Service (Amendment) Ordinance.

They brought out a procession at 11:15am on Thursday from the Employees Unity Council office at the Secretariat and gathered at Badamtala. Then the procession marched through different alleys inside the Secretariat.

Although employee attendance was low at Tuesday and Wednesday's protests, around a thousand of employees took part in the protests on Thursday.

The protesters dragged interested employees into the procession and chanted several slogans against "fascism".

At one point, they gathered near the Cabinet building ...