Many took to swimming to reach home amid shutdown

A man crosses a canal with bag in one hand in Bhurghata area of Gournadi, BarishalProthom Alo

Many people are swimming home, evading the police check-posts set up at various points of the roads in Gournadi, Barishal to curb the outbreak of coronavirus.

Most of these people are labourers in Dhaka as well as in Narayanganj, the city that the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has identified as the hotspot of spread of coronavirus.

Police and local administration said they locked down the town from Sunday evening and set up check-posts to curb the virus outbreak following the deputy commissioner’s directives to stop anyone from entering and leaving the town.

Several executive magistrates have been supervising the check-posts.

Earlier, the Gournadi upazila administration stopped 12 roads liked to Kalkini upazila of Madaripur as coronavirus spread there.

The administration recently locked down Narayanganj district after IEDCR had identified it as the hotspot of coronavirus outbreak. Since then hundreds of people started leaving Dhaka and Narayanganj.

Gournadi model police station officer-in-charge (investigation) Md Mahabubur Rahman said no one will be allowed to enter Barishal district. We are taking all kinds of steps to implement the decision.

Locals from Bhurghata of Gournadi and Masjid Bari of Kalkini upazilas said they saw many people returning from Dhaka and Narayanganj by boat, rickshaw-van and even walking. Since people are being stopped by police in Bhurghata area, they simply swim across the Bhurghata canal, they added.

Former councillor of Khanjapur union parishad Kamal Hossain and local businessman Abdur Rahim said hundreds of people from Dhaka and Narayanganj are entering Barishal, swimming across the canal every day. They have been crossing through the Dasar, Nabagram, Sashikar, Baligram, Masjid Bari of Kalkini and Bakai and Samarsingha areas of Gournadi upazilas, they added.

This is very risky as the canal is full of water hyacinth, Kamal Hossain and Abdur Rahim added.

After swimming across the canal, Sabar Ali from Ujirpur said, “We work at (readymade) garment factories and have no work now. We have no money and no food. What would I do in Narayanganj? Besides, the fear of coronavirus outbreak is there. This is why I started for home. I must go home. That is why I swam across the canal. I’ll be able to reach home now.”

Executive magistrate Md. Shahdat Hossain said, “A police check-post has been set up on Bhurghata bridge on the border of Madaripur’s Kalkini and Barishal’s Gournadi on Dhaka-Barishal highway. We are monitoring the area so that none can enter. But people are swimming across the canal and entering Barishal. We’re taking steps to stop this.”