People suffer as bus communication snapped over BNP rally in Rajshahi

Bus communication to and from Rajshahi has been snapped over a rally of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) scheduled to begin at 2:00pm Tuesday. Although the bus counters remain open, nobody is selling tickets, leaving the passengers in immense sufferings.

At Shiroil bus terminal in the city, the bus counters were found half-open in the morning. Transport workers were sitting idly at the counters but they were not selling any tickets.

Shafiqul Islam, a counter master of Hanif Paribahan, said they would not sell any ticket without permission from the owners’ association.

Abul Bashar, a software engineer based in Dhaka, said he needed to go to his workstation in an emergency but could not find a bus.

Nazma Begum of Chapainawabganj came to Rajshahi with her children to see a physician. She was stranded at the bus counter.

Yousuf Ali had to go skip the plan of going to Dhaka after finding out about the undeclared suspension of communication.

Asked if police have anything to do about the sudden postponement of the bus service, additional deputy commissioner of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police Golam Ruhul Kuddus said they are trying to figure it out.

BNP’s Rajshahi divisional organising secretary Ruhul Quddus Talukder told Prothom Alo that bus communication was snapped in a similar way to thwart another programme of BNP back in 2018 but the programme was still a success.

He hoped that people will make the Tuesday's programme a success like previous occasion despite the snapping of communication.