An hour of work abstention by Customs officials at Benapole Port held up over 1,000 passengers on Thursday.
Normalcy only returned to the land port on Friday afternoon after the deputy commissioner of Jessore and a senior Customs official visited there and spoke to the abstaining officials.
The Customs officials were alleging that they had been harassed by immigration police on Wednesday afternoon.
Over 1,000 passengers could not to India on Thursday in the wake of the work abstention that started from 10am.
On Friday, they had to spend three to four hours to complete their customs and immigration formalities, port sources said.
The port's immigration police Officer-in-Charge Omar Sharif said some Customs officials demanded Tk12,000 bribe from a passenger coming from India on Wednesday.
“As we intervened, they [customs officials] started an altercation with us and it led to a scuffle,” he said.
The police officer also accused the Customs officials of verbally abusing them.
He attested to the suffering of the passengers.
A Customs official requesting anonymity said the policemen obstructed them when they challenged a passenger, asking him to open his luggage.
The situation was calm now after the visit of Deputy Commissioner Md Ashraf Uddin, he said.
But he claimed that the issue had not been settled entirely.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
