Train services resume as police foil railway workers blockade

Staff Reporter :
Police have resorted to baton charge and removed the temporary workers of Bangladesh Railway, who were staging a protest by blocking the railway track in the city’s Malibagharea since yesterday morning.

However, rail communications between Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh resumed in the afternoon nearly after five hours of suspension due to blockade.

Earlier on the day, the temporary workers of Bangladesh Railway started demonstrations on the rail track since 10:00am obstructing the rail track in the city’s Malibagh section demanding their jobs be made permanent.

As a result, the train communication between Dhaka and the rest of the country came to a halt for around five hours.

Meanwhile, Rilways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said that there was no possibility of making their jobs permanent as they were working on daily wage basis.

Terming the workers’ demand ‘illogical,’ the minister said that he would recommend recruiting the workers once recruitment was done through outsourcing.

Ferdous Ahmed Biswas, officer-in-charge of Kamalapur Railway Police Station said that the blockade was withdrawn at about around 2:30pm.

The temporary workers of the railways have been protesting for long demanding their jobs to be permanent.

As the blockade went on, the police suddenly removed the workers from the railway line by beating them with batons, the agitating workers said.

“Many of our workers seriously were injured in the police action and police have stopped our logical movement.

At least three injured workers were taken away by the police in the name of providing treatment at hospitals,” Moklesur Rahman, an agitator told reporters.

The workers said that they have been making demands to the authorities for a long time to make their jobs permanent, even they spoke to the Director General and Secretary of Railways.

The workers want to meet the Prime Minister to solve their problem.

They claimed that about 7,500 persons are employed as temporary workers across the country through advertisements.

They have already been working in the railways for at least 14 years.

According to sources, two trains named Rangpur Express and Tangail Commuter got stuck at Malibagh.