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3-wheel drivers run amok in Ctg

CU Correspondent
Several hundred drivers of CNG-run auto-rickshaw went on rampage and vandalised over 50 vehicles, including a policevan, during a wildcat strike in the city yesterday demanding an end to, what they said police harassment'.
The drivers locked into a clash with automobile traders on Sheikh Mujib Road that left at least 30 people injured, including police.
The wildcat strike and procession blocking the roads caused untold sufferings to the city commuters.
Fifteen drivers were arrested in connection with the vandalism while Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) at a meeting in the afternoon termed the demands unjustified ones'.
Sources said, the drivers enforced the strike keeping their three-wheeler off the road since morning to protest the ongoing drive by CMP Traffic Department against the three-wheeler plying with faulty tariff metre or without metre.
At about 12:00 noon, the drivers put up barricade on the city's busy Tigerpass intersection and staged a demonstration there. Later, they went to the Sheikh Mujib Road and vandalised about 50 vehicles.
They also ransacked the office of Crystal Agency, a meter installation company, at Dewanhat and assaulted Nazrul Sarker, a for-met leader of auto-rickshawworkers' association, sources said. At one stage, they started damaging vehicles parked in front of the motor parts shops on both sides of Sheikh Mujib Road resulting in a clash with the local automobile traders at about 1:00 pm that left over 30 people injured.
Ihe traders also manhandled five photojournalists, including Mashiur Rahman Badal of Jai Jai Din, Projesh Chakrabarty of local daily Suprabhat Bangladesh and AUS Dulal of local daily People's View, during the melee.
As police rushed to the spot and charged batons to disperse them, the drivers gathered and barricaded on Tigerpass intersection.
They were drove away from the road after ahotchasebypolice and locals at about 2.00 pm. The barricade resulted serious tailback at Kadamtali, Dewanhat and Lalkhan Bazar areas.
The CNG drivers enforced the strike to protest the on going drive and alleged harassment as well as to press home their five-point demand. The demands include an end to detaining and filing cases against auto-rickshaws, implementation of government order to give the owner Tk 450 daily, stopping harassment of drives, ensuring security of the vehicles and drivers and providing parking spaces at the city's important points.
Chittagong Metropolitan Auto-rickshaw and Auto-tempo Workers' Welfare Union President Mohammad Kamal Uddin alleged that police has been harassing the drivers in the name of drives though they have no security since the muggers snatched the autorickshaw killing the drivers.
CMP Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Department Mainul Islam said “We called them to sit in a meeting to settle the matter and we will consider their logical demands.”
But the union leaders did not turn up in the meeting held at CMP headquarters at around 4:30 pm with CMP Commissioner Md Mdniruzzaman in the chair.