The wildcat transport strike, during which a worker died and scores were injured, apart from paralysing life across the country, was withdrawn yesterday afternoon at the intervention of shipping minister Shajahan Khan. The minister also heads a labour organisation.Public ordeal ends, finally
Transport strike called off after minister
dictates workers to resume work
STAFF REPORTER
The wildcat transport strike, during which a worker died and scores were injured, apart from paralysing life across the country, was withdrawn yesterday afternoon at the intervention of shipping minister Shajahan Khan. The minister also heads a labour organisation.
Transport owners and leaders of workers continued talks with senior government officials as the strike continued, adding to the sufferings of the people. Transporters clashed with law enforcers at different places, including Gabtoli in the capital, where one worker was killed and several others were injured.
Shipping minister Shajahan Khan, also the executive president of the Bangladesh Shramik Federation, said the workers withdrew the strike after getting an assurance that their demands would be looked into. However, there were allegations that the whole thing was a drama staged by the minister himself.
The transport workers were feeling insecure after court verdicts of death sentence and life imprisonment of two drivers in separate cases. Thats why they stopped plying vehicles, Khan told reporters after a meeting at the BRTC Bhaban in the capital.
The minister also expressed his sympathy to the people who suffered for the strike, enforced in protest against the death sentence of a driver for killing a woman in a Savar accident in 2003.
Earlier, law minister Anisul Huq, road transport and bridges minister, Obaidul Quader,Shajahan Khan, state minister for local government and rural development (LGRD), Moshiur Rahman Ranga, and the general secretary of the Sarak Paribahan Malik Samiti, Khandaker Enayet Ullah, held a meeting at the Secretariat to discuss the transport strike.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation went on strike in protest against the life imprisonment of driver Jamir Hossain, responsible for killing film-maker Tareque Masud, Mishuk Munier and three others in Manikganj in 2011, and the death sentence of another driver by a Dhaka court. They demanded withdrawal of the verdicts.
A bus driver was killed and several others, including policemen, were injured in a clash between transport workers and law enforcers at the Gabtoli bus terminal in the capital. The workers vandalised several vehicles. The police said the bus driver killed was Shah Alam of Boishakhi Paribahan.
Witnesses said the clash began at 10am, when the police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) tried to disperse transport workers who were preventing willing workers from taking out their vehicles.
The police fired rubber bullets and tear-gas shells to disperse the agitating workers, which triggered chases and counter-chases.
As the fight escalated, the law enforcers baton-charged the protesters, leaving some of them injured.
Shah Alam, driver of Boishakhi Paribahan, suffered severe injuries during the clash. He was admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), said sub-inspector Bacchu Miah, in-charge of the DMCH police camp.
The protesters later regrouped and started hurling brick chips at the policemen and RAB members, triggering chases and counter-chases several times.
Law enforcers detained at least 10 people during the clash. The agitated workers also set fire to a police box in the area in the morning. On Thursday night, they set fire to a police van in the area.
Asked about the Gabtoli incident, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah said the law enforcers were asked to exercise maximum restraint while dealing with the workers.
A good number of law enforcers was deployed from the Technical intersection to Aminbazar in Savar upazila to ward off any untoward incident.
A writ petition was filed before the High Court yesterday, challenging the legality of the nationwide strike and seeking an order to stop the strike within 24 hours.
Advocate Monzil Murshid submitted the writ on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh in public interest.
The nationwide strike crippled the country, causing immense sufferings to commuters trying to reach their destinations and workplaces. In the capital, no inter-district bus left Gabtoli, Mohakhali or Sayedabad bus terminals in the morning.
The strike also badly affected people of the capital and the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinees. People were forced to pay extra to get other vehicles, like CNG auto-rickshaws, van and rickshaws. However, state-owned BRTC buses were out on the streets, but they were few in number. It was some sort of a relief for the people, but they had to fight their way to catch one.
Soon after withdrawal of the strike, long-distance buses began to leave the terminals and people rushed to the ticket counters. Buses began to leave the Mohakhali bus terminal at around 4pm.
The secretary-general of the Sarak Paribahan Samiti, Enayet Ullah, said: We have informed all terminals to start plying buses. We have asked the owners to allow the workers to ply the vehicles.
As soon as the buses resumed service, people heaved a sigh of relief after nearly two days of untold sufferings.
