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Virtual hartal by government

Transport sector goes haywire as cops, ruling AL men obstruct buses, boats; rail, air services close to normalcy

Star Report
The streets of the capital yesterday wore the look of a hartal tightly enforced, apparently by the ruling party, as almost
all public transport remained off the roads.
No inter-district or local buses left from Mohakhali, Gabtali or Sayedabad bus
terminals. As a result, a few commuters who tried to go somewhere had to turn to rickshaw or van rides.
A similarly grim picture was seen at the Sadarghat launch terminal where a pro-government workers' group armed with sticks was seen resisting the entry of all vessels and boats.
However, flight operations at Shahjalal International Airport and rail operations at Kamalapur station were normal. But passengers faced plenty of hurdles trying to reach the airport, station and other destinations.
The main mode of transport yesterday in the city was rickshaws.
During hartal it is normally seen that some public transport plies on some major roads with the help of the law enforcers. But yesterday the scene was completely different.
SCENES FROM TONGI
From early morning, dozens of motorcycle-riding youths armed with sticks were seen
stopping any vehicles from entering the city through Tongi. The police were also seen backing these youths.
From Abdullahpur to Jasimuddin Road crossing of Uttara, many office-goers and commuters were seen walking for miles to find some wheels to hop on. Many finally gave up and returned home.
"I waited for over an hour to get any mode of transport," Altafur Rahman, a manager at Jiban Bima Corporation, told The Daily Star at Abdullahpur, adding, "Now I am going home."
He said, "The government has stopped operation of all public vehicles without any official notice or declaring March 12 a public holiday. How can we commute to our work places in such a situation?"
Dr Momena Akhtar, who works in Rampura, waited for 30 minutes at the same spot. She noted, "Some local buses are available even on hartal days to travel in order to accomplish urgent jobs. But today, that opportunity
too is not available."
The road from Abdullahpur to Mohakhali was nearly empty at 10:00am, as a heavy posse of policemen imposed tough checks on each and every vehicle entering the city with passengers through Uttara.
At noon, police intercepted two private cars, including one bearing registration no-Dhaka Metro 31-0235, while they were enter-ing Dhaka through Abdullahpur, forced the passengers to get off and took the vehicles into their custody. The owner of the car, Shahidullah Shahid, told The Daily Star his papers were all in order.
JATRABARI
Sayedabad bus terminal, which remains busy round the clock, yesterday wore a grave look as no bus left or entered it. Only a few CNG-run three-wheelers were seen carrying passengers in the morning.
The driver of a Dhaka-Comilla bus service, sitting idle at the terminal, told The Daily Star, "We could not run
our services due to the pressure of our top leaders and harassment by police."
Comilla-bound housewife Chameli Begum was seen stranded at the terminal with two heavy suitcases.
"We came to Dhaka for some urgent work but today my husband has to join his office in Comilla for which we came to the bus stoppage taking a huge risk," she said.
Another stranded passenger, Ali Ahsan, described his plight, "My father is very sick and asked me to go to Sylhet immediately. But I failed to get any mode of transport in the last two hours."
The Jatrabari crossing was, however, crowded with CNG-run three-wheelers, rickshaws and human haulers. Commuters who came to the bus terminal turned to these modes of transport which were seen charging two to three times the usual fares.
GABTALI
As police had restricted all types of vehicles coming from Dhaka-Paturia
Highway and entering the capital since the morning at Amin Bazar point, commuters had to resort to walking, taking rickshaws or other modes of transport.
As at other bus terminals, no bus came to or left from the Gabtali bus terminal.
A police team led by Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, assistant superintendent of police of Savar Circle, carried out searches by stopping vehicles at Amin Bazar. The law enforcers were allowing only one person to travel in each vehicle and forcing the others to get off.
Furious at the situation, private service holder Abdur Rahim, who was going to his workplace in Motijheel, was seen yelling at the police, "If you have to bar people from entering the city, why didn't the government declare today a public holiday and shut down all the offices?"
Police officer Mohammad Rafiqul Islam told The Daily Star, "We are checking passengers' luggage to ascertain if anybody is carrying any explosives."
Majedul Islam, an elderly person from Hemayetpur, being enraged by the harassment, verbally abused the government as he was forced to get off a Mohakhali-bound human hauler at Amin Bazar.
"They are not human beings at all, those who have caused sufferings to the public by their dirty politics. They should be slapped when they chant slogans about promising welfare for the public," he said.
Along with the police the leaders and activists of the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations also took part in the 'search' and harassed the passengers by stopping their vehicles in the name of looking for explosives.
"Our activists are conducting searches to find explosives or any kind of arms which can be used to create anarchy. They are doing it following an order from the central committee to assist the police," said SM Hanif, general secretary of MirpurunitAL.
Passengers were seen waiting at different points from Gabtali to Shyamoli for vehicles hour after hour as no passenger buses save some CNG-run three-wheelers or human haulers were available.
Law enforcers, including Rapid Action Battalion, took positions at such main points as Shishu Mela, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Darussalam and Gabtali and searched passengers, killing their time further and adding to their sufferings.
SADARGHAT
For the second consecutive day, pro-AL riverine transport workers yesterday barred Dhaka-bound launches from anchoring at the Sadarghat launch terminal, the city's single outlet for riverine routes.
Popularly known as 'Lal Bahini', the group ofworkers forced two launches — MV Redsun-2 and Tarika-7 from Shariatpur and Patuakhali respectively which arrived at Dhaka in between 5:45am to 7:00am early in the morning — to anchor elsewhere.
In red shirts, the workers also stopped the movement of boats that carry people from Keraniganj to Sadarghat since morning. They beat up eight to 10 boatmen as they tried to ply boats at Ispahani Ghat at 8:45am.
The Lal Bahini was seen patrolling on the river on several trawlers and chanting the slogan "Joy Bangla, Joy Bangabandhu" with red-coloured sticks in their hands. They were also present in a large number at Keraniganj, on the opposite bank of the Buriganga.
In the absence of passengers, a bustling Sadarghat wore a barren look all day. Only two launches, MV Lamia and MV Moyur-2, left the terminal as of 6:00pm last evening.
Additional members from different law-enforcement agencies were deployed to maintain law and order.
OTHER COMMUNICATION POINTS
Rail communications, how-
ever, appeared to be normal yesterday morning although almost all trains coming to the city arrived customarily late at the Kamalapur Railway Station.
Three trains -- Ekota Express from Dinajpur, Turna from Chittagong and Jamuna Express from the east side of the Bangabandhu Bridge --arrived at the station between 7:35am and 9:50am.
Flocks of BNP activists arrived by each of the trains to join the rally.
Around three dozen Rab and police officials were posted at the station. While some Rab officials were seen performing routine patrols, the law enforcers did not inspect or impede anyone from entering or exiting the station.
At Shahjalal International Airport, no international flight was cancelled. Officials of local and foreign airlines said they did not find any passenger reporting missing scheduled flights.
Passenger flow at the domestic terminal was also fine, said Imran Asif, chief executive of Regent Airways.
"Everything is good so far," said a Biman official, adding, "We have got all passengers who booked tickets earlier on board."
However, passengers coming from abroad faced difficulties in going to their destinations due to the absence of CNG-auto-rickshaws, taxicabs and buses.