The two-day pause in the BNP-led combine’s indefinite blockade ended yesterday and people are going to suffer again today after a brief respite.
The two-day relief apparently gave people a “safe time” to make trips and finish works. Thus since Friday the city roads had huge traffic and on several highways there were unusual congestion that continued yesterday.
The alliance enforced the countrywide rail, road and waterways blockade programme from January 1, demanding cancellation of January 5 parliamentary poll’s results, release of its leaders and protesting the killing of opposition men on the election day.
On Thursday, the opposition combine postponed blockade for Friday and Saturday and enforced it today.
Yesterday, a bullet-riddle body of a Shibir activist was recovered at Polashbari upazila in Gaibandha district.
Reporting traffic congestion, our Tangail correspondent said hundreds of passengers remain stuck in a 70-kilometre tailback on Dhaka-Tangail highway since Friday night due to a heavy rush of vehicles.
Heavy fog descended that slowed down the speed of a large number of vehicles.
The tailback which began around 10pm Friday stretched from Bangabandhu bridge area to Chandra in Kaliakair upazila of Gazipur until evening.
Witnesses said till 12 noon hundreds of vehicles remained stuck on the two-lane highway, the entry point of 26 districts including 16 northern districts.
Komol, Ratan and Sabina, all passengers of a Dhaleswari Paribahan bus, said they had left Mohakhali bus stand around 5:30am and till 2pm they could reach only Pakulla.
Md Aftabuddin Khan, a businessman in Bagra town, said he set out for Dhaka early Saturday morning and had to walk at least 10 kilometers from Jamuna East to Elenga to catch a Dhaka-bound bus.
In the capital on almost all signal points, vehicles stuck extra time while the vehicle movement was slow due to unusual pressure of vehicles. Trains, buses and launches had extra crowd of passengers.
Arrest and drives continued
Police arrested 20 leaders and activists of Rajshahi district unit BNP including its general secretary Kamrul Moni. In Satkanina of Chittagong, they arrested six Jamaat-Shibir men on charges of their involvement in violence at the upazila in recent times.
A Shibir activist Borhan Uddin, 31, was arrested from Feni’s Daganbhuiyan upazila’s Jaylaskar union and recovered four petrol bombs from his house.
In Meherpur, police arrested four activists of the 18-party alliance.
Meanwhile, in Chittagong city, Jamaat- Shibir activists blasted eight crude bombs and vandalised four vehicles in Ek Kilomitre area under Chandgaon police station in the morning.
