Protesting an assault on transport-workers in the issue of boarding passengers, and seeking a halt to illegal vehicles plying the route, Gopalganj district bus owners and workers are observing an indefinite strike on the Gopalganj-Tungipara route.
As the tense situation entered its second day yesterday, no bus left Gopalganj for Tungipara. Passengers are suffering as a result, and have to make the trip on a rickshaw or a rickshaw-van.
Tensions erupted Tuesday night when Mahindra (a human hauler without registration or route permit that in this case moves between Tungipara and Khaleker bazaar, both upazilas of the district) operators assaulted bus-workers at the Patgati Bus stand of Tungipara. The incident happened due to differences in the issue of attracting and boarding passengers. Seven bus workers were injured, and two buses and two Mahindras were vandalised in the fracas.
The district bus owners and worker union, on indefinite strike since Wednesday afternoon, is hell bent on observing the strike as long as the guilty are not punished and the illegal vehicles operating on the route are not taken off.
“Illegal vehicles have been operating on the Gopalganj-Tungipara route for quite a long time. This strike will go on until these vehicles are not taken off,” said Kamil Sarwar, the secretary general of the district bus-owners and workers union.
The officer in charge of the local police station is trying to resolve the conflict.