For the third time, residents of Faridpur have resumed blockades on the Dhaka–Khulna and Dhaka–Barisal highways.
Beginning at 9am on Wednesday, locals enforced the blockade in Bhanga to protest the redrawing of parliamentary constituencies and to demand the reinstatement of the previous demarcation.
During the demonstration, both freight trucks and passenger buses were seen stranded on the roads.
Earlier, on Friday and Tuesday, agitated residents blocked two major highways—including the Dhaka–Mawa–Bhanga Expressway at the Bhanga roundabout, the gateway to southern Bangladesh—causing severe public suffering.
On Tuesday morning, starting from 8am, residents set fire to tires, felled trees and electric poles and erected bamboo barricades at nine points along the expressway, as well as on the Dhaka–Khulna and Dhaka–Barisal highways.
As a result, traffic across 21 districts of southern Bangladesh came to a complete standstill. From 9am on Wednesday, the protesters once again resumed their blockade to press their demands, leading to traffic congestion at four entry points of the two highways.
Ahead of the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday issued a gazette notification—signed by Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed—announcing changes in 46 constituencies.
According to the gazette, the boundaries of two parliamentary constituencies in Faridpur have been redrawn.
Algi and Hamirdi unions of Bhanga upazila, which were previously part of Faridpur-4 (comprising Bhanga, Sadarpur and Charbhadrasan upazilas), have now been annexed to neighboring Nagarkanda upazila under Faridpur-2. Following this decision, outraged locals took to the streets in protest.
