Road minister calls for lifting transport strike
Road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader has made a call on the transport workers to withdraw their “illogical” strike as soon as possible.
Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation announced the wildcat indefinite strike across the country following a court verdict that sentenced a driver to death.
The strike has left people in distress and caused immense sufferings on Tuesday.
The federation on Monday announced the strike after a court had sentenced driver Mir Hossain Miru to death in a case filed over a road crash that left a woman dead in Savar on 2003.
Transport workers had been enforcing another indefinite strike in 10 districts of Khulna division since Sunday, protesting at the life term imprisonment in a case filed against a bus driver over a road accident that killed five people, including noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and cinematographer Mishuk Munier.
“The verdict has been given by the court, not by the people. The people have no connection with the verdict. Then, why will the people suffer?” Obaidul Quader told a meeting in the capital.
Ruling Bangladesh Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League organised the meeting marking the Shaheed Dibash and the International Mother Language Day at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh in the capital on Tuesday.
The road transport and bridges minister called on the transport workers to withdraw the strike.
Talking about the half-day general strike called by two leftist political parties in the capital, Obaidul, also the AL general secretary, said the general strike was not successful.
“Has anyone in the capital seen the hartal [general strike] being observed? Was the vehicular movement stopped anywhere? Hartal works no more. The hartal has got rust now,” said Quader.
The AL leader called on activists of his party’s student wing to shun the politics of godfather. “Rise of godfather in politics is dangerous. Go through the history. The end of godfathers has not been normal. We don’t have skilled popular leaders in our party. The end of godfathers becomes tragic.”
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