38-hour transport strike begins in Faridpur

Staff Reporter :
A 38-hour bus strike enforced by transport operators and workers will begin today in Faridpur, a day before Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) mass rally in the district.
The strike will start at 6:00am on Friday and continue till 8:00pm on Saturday.
Faridpur District Bus Owners and Workers Unity Council called the strike demanding a ban on the plying of three-wheelers on highway.
Golam Md Nasir, general secretary of Faridpur District Bus Owners and Workers Unity Council, said that if the demand is not implemented, tougher programme will be announced afterwards.
Earlier in a letter on November 7, the Parishad gave a deadline to the Commissioner of Dhaka Division to stop the movement of all kinds of three-wheelers including Nosimon, Korimon, Bhotbhoti, Mahindra, Easy Bike and battery-run rickshaws on the highways.
Before the ending of the deadline till 12pm on Thursday, the Parishad announced the strike about 15 hours ago.
Faridpur local BNP leaders and workers said that the transport strike had been called as they had a grand rally on November 12.
However, such a transport strike is nothing new for BNP as they had faced it ahead of their previous rallies in Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur and Barishal.
BNP said that it was a ploy of the government to prevent their leaders and workers from spontaneously participating in the rally.
But BNP assertively said that obstructions viz transport strikes and attacks on them cannot prevent them from holding rally which echoes people’s demand for a free and fair election.
About the strike, General Secretary of the Parishad Golam Nasir said, “The local administration did not sit with us to talk about our demand. Even we did not get any positive response in the past from them. So we are making announcements of the strike with loudspeakers before enacting for bus strike.”
Faridpur district BNP Convener Syed Modasser Ali said that the strike could not prevent people from joining the rally. “The transport strike has been called before end of the deadline. The government, administration and Awami League have their hands behind it. It is a pre-planned and mean activity. It will only intensify people’s sufferings,” he added.
Meanwhile, BNP leaders and workers from different districts started arriving in the venue in Faridpur three-day ahead of the rally. Around six hundred BNP leaders and workers on Wednesday reached the venue at Komorpur Abdul Aziz Institution. Many others will reach before the transport strike, BNP said.
The Faridpur BNP activists were busy in work for the arrangements of the stage. BNP Chairperson’s Adviser Jahirul Haque and district BNP convener Syed Modasser Ali were overseeing the whole arrangements.
The BNP activists who had arrived earlier were spending nights in two big rooms of the institution and having meals there. BNP has been holding rallies as per its previous schedule of congregations in 10 divisional cities. The opposition has already finished five rallies and the Faridpur rally will be the sixth one. Ruling Awami League said that they would not prevent the BNP from holding their rallies, but the BNP said that the government is using state machinery including its party men to foil their rallies.
But whatever the case, the common people suffer the worst when the rallies are held in any city as the entire district or division is severed with other districts as the strikes disconnect the transportation.