Thousands of people living in the southern districts have been suffering from a lack of available transport since Sunday as the indefinite transport strike enforced by the Khulna Bus-Minibus Owners’ Association entered day four.
The association of the transport workers went on strike on the Khulna-Mawa Road on Sunday protesting the vandalism of a vehicle by the labourers of another transport owners’ association.
Road communication between Dhaka and the southern region of the country has remained severed since.
No long-route bus or minibus has operated on the road since the beginning of the strike.
Yesterday, transport workers under Gopalganj District Motor Union vandalised a Rohan Paribahan bus, triggering tension among local residents.
Although vehicles plied on alternative roads, including Rajbari-Goalanda Road, Dhaka-bound people suffered since they had to change transportation several times to get to their destination.
Tanvir Ahmed, a resident of Gopalganj sadar upazila, said, “I have to go to Barisal to visit my sister's residence, but I am not being able to get there because of the strike.”
He said transport workers always scuffle over trivial matters and later call strikes and he feels that this trend should be changed.
According to Tanvir, if the transport strike was not withdrawn immediately, commuters who were home-bound for Eid would suffer the most, and so he urged transport leaders to withdraw the strike as soon as possible.
A clash ensued between the activists of Khulna Bus-Minibus Owners’ Association and Gopalganj Bus-minibus Owners Association after an altercation over a trivial matter on Sunday afternoon.
Later, Gopalganj Bus-Minibus Owners’ Association activists vandalised a bus on its way to Khulna from Barisal and indiscriminately beat the bus worker.
Later, protesting the attack, Khulna Bus-minibus Owners Association announced the indefinite strike from 8pm on Sunday.
Md Bulbul Islam, president of Gopalganj District Motor Union, told the Dhaka Tribune that they would not allow any vehicle from Khulna to run on the highway until the people who had vandalised the vehicles were punished.
Md Anwar Hossain, general secretary of Khulna Bus-Minibus Owners’ Association, said they had stopped the operating of all vehicles on the Khulna-Mawa Highway to save the lives of the bus workers as well as to protect the vehicles from vandalism.
“We will continue the strike until a mutual agreement is reached between the two transport owners' associations,” he said.