Chattogram transport strike called off

Transport workers have suspended their 24-hour strike on Thursday after the local administration promised to swiftly arrest criminals who beat a bus driver to death in Patiya, reports UNB.

Workers took the decision at an emergency meeting at noon, said Oli Ahmed, general secretary of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation (BRTWF) Chattogram regional committee.

They met district administration and superintendent of police at the circuit house on Wednesday night. Following their assurance, the transport leaders held a meeting today and decided to suspend their strike from 12pm to 5 May.

The strike that began at 6pm Wednesday disrupted road communications between the district and the rest of the country, causing sufferings to commuters.

However, vehicular movement has become normal after 12pm today (Thursday).

Earlier, a regional committee of BRTWF announced the strike in two phases - one from 6pm Wednesday to 6pm Thursday on 68 district routes connecting Chattogram and 19 local routes.

General secretary of the workers' body Mohammad Musa said that the second phase of the strike will be enforced on all routes of five districts in the division for another 24 hours on 28 April.

The protesters demanded immediate arrest of the killers and bringing them under trial.

A group of men, identifying themselves as DB members, stopped a Shyamoli Paribahan-NR bus in Patiys's Shantirhat to search for yaba around 8pm on Monday, Bablu Ahmed, the company's regional unit manager, said quoting bus supervisor Azim Uddin.

They dragged driver Jalal Uddin, 50, out of the vehicle and beat him up, leaving him severely injured, he said. Later, physicians declared the driver dead when he was taken to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.