Transport workers take strike countrywide

Transport workers took their protests to a bigger scale, covering the whole country up from Khulna division, protesting the conviction of two fellow drivers.

The death conviction of a trucker in Dhaka yesterday fueled the transport workers who were already on strike in Khulna division and helped it spread countrywide.

“We are protesting the penalties to two transport workers,” Osman Ali, general secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation, told The Daily Star.

In Manikganj on February 22, a court awarded life for a trucker convicting him of killing eminent filmmaker Tareque Masud and media Peronality Mishuk Munier in a road crash.

Protesting, the transport workers went on strike in 10 southern districts from 6:00am Sunday.

PEOPLE SUFFER AS WORKERS CLAMP STRIKE

Thousands of passengers remain stranded at Gabtoli bus terminal, our correspondent reports from the spot. The transport workers were seen force stopping passenger carrying vehicles.

Armed with bamboo sticks and rods, they have taken position in the middle of the road in Gabtoli area.

Transport workers barr all vehicles and blockaded the Gabtoli cattle market crossing at Darussalam, one of the entry points to Dhaka, causing untold sufferings to passengers on February 28, 2017. Photo: Palash Khan

The women and children were worst affected as a number of women were seen waiting under the sun carrying children on their laps.

“People are suffering a lot as no buses were operating following the wildcat strike,” Liton Kumar Saha, additional commissioner (traffic), told Prothom Alo.

Source: The Daily Star