Some 3.5 million SIM-card users have left the capital to celebrate the holy Eid-ul-Azha with families. Posts and telecommunications minister Mustafa Jabbar said in a Facebook post on Saturday that they left Dhaka on 8 July, Friday.
The minister said a total of 3,530,732 SIM users left Dhaka for different parts of the country on 8 July. Of the some 1.58 million are GrameenPhone subscribers, 975,613 are Robi subscribers, 849,460 are Banglalink users and 122,327 are Teletalk users.
7 July was the last working day before the Eid holiday. So the rush of home-bound people increased from that night. Many people left the capital at the same time that night as the next day was Friday.
However, it is not possible to determine the actual number of people leaving Dhaka from these figures because this information is based on the number of mobile SIMs. One person can use multiple SIMs. Besides, there are also children with families leaving Dhaka. SIMs are not registered in the names of children.