Uneasy calm grips Dhaka
Staff Reporter :
When the last minute’s preparation for the 12th national election is underway, Dhaka – one of the most crowd cities in the world, wore a deserted look with thinning vehicles and commuters.
The city, where the people usually remain always in rush to meet their daily necessity, was isolated yesterday as there was hardly any private cars on the road, public transport was also less in number.
Besides, most of the shops were closed. Even the people who went out for urgent needs, they rushed to return home.
The national election will begin today’s morning, in the meantime, panic swallowed the public mind as four people lost their life in a train arson in the city on Friday and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami’s strike to stop the polls is ongoing.
While visiting, it seen that, almost all the streets of the capital was empty. There was no usual traffic jam on the road and the commuters’ crowd was not as the others day.
There was not any traffic jam and commuters’ crowd at Gulistan which is one of the busy areas of Dhaka. Besides, there is no traffic red signal at Gulshan-1 Chattar and Vijay Sarani which is another congested area for vehicles in the city.
Rampura, Malibagh, Shantinagar, Vijayanagar and Paltan areas were a less number of vehicles and there is no such thing as a traffic jam. The number of commuters is also very a smaller. Besides, in some roads, the silence has fallen in the day.
Meanwhile, the number of customers in Newmarket area was very low even though shops were remaining open. Traffic and commuters’ situation was like other areas. The picture of Mirpur-1, Mohakhali, Shyamoli, Technical and Gabtali area were also almost the same.
Motahar Hossain, the driver of Achim Paribahan which runs Mirpur to Demra Staff Quarter, told to the media, “We are running bus without fear. All our buses are on the road. But there are only a few passengers.”
On the eve of the polls, there was an urge to return home quickly among people who went out for urgent needs. Asif Ali came to the LabAid Hospital to give therapy.
He said, “I have to come two days in week. That’s why I came. I am returning home quickly now after finishing the task.”
Ataur Rahman, a worker who works in Paltan area and lives in Khilkhet area. He naturally leaves from the office at 7pm, but yesterday he got a quick leave from the office.
He said, “Boss instructed everyone to leave at 3 o’clock for today.” Meanwhile, police and law enforcement forces agency were seen everywhere in the Dhaka city’s road. Police, RAB and BGB were ambulating almost all the roads blowing whistles.