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Dropped off midway

M Abul Kalam Azad with MIRZA SHAKIL in Tangail
Abdul Khaleque had no idea what he, his wife and his two daughters were in for when they got on board the Nil Sagar Express heading for Dhaka early yesterday.
In the bitter cold, they had to wait at Lalmonirhat Railway Station as the train was three hours behind schedule and it started at 2:30am. But it was nothing compared to the agony they went through first in Tangail and then on their way to Dhaka.
Around 7:40am, the train was stopped at Gharinda Railway Station near Bangabandhu Bridge. After a
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thorough search, police picked up 150 passengers suspecting them to be BNP-Jamaat activists heading for Dhaka to attend the opposition's "march for democracy" programme today.
Station Master Jalal Uddin of Gharinda Railway Station said, "No train will be allowed to start for Dhaka from Tangail station until they get directives from the higher authorities."
Khaleque and 500 other passengers were asked to get off and told that the train would return to Nilphamari. This put many passengers, including women and children, in trouble.
Amid the chilly weather and with luggage, Khaleque's first thought was to catch an auto-rickshaw or a human haulier to get to Tangail Bus Terminal.
Khaleque reached the terminal on a three-wheeler only to be more frustrated. No buses were leaving the terminal for Dhaka. He had no idea how he would reach Dhaka, which is 100km away.
Soon some others, who were forced to get down from Neelsagor train, arrived at the terminal.
After waiting there for a couple of hours, Khaleque and other passengers managed a minibus and started for Dhaka at 11:10am. However, they did not make it to Dhaka itself.
A group of stick-wielding people stopped
the minibus when it reached DEPZ in Savar around 1:30pm, driver of the vehicle Swapan told The Daily Star.
Khaleque, a trader from Jaldhaka of Nilphamari, said, "We hired a CNG-run three-wheeler and finally reached Mirpur, ending our long journey."
Thousands more suffered similar ordeals as passengers travelling on trains from different directions were forced to get down in Joydevpur, Tongi and Mymensingh.
Many managed to reach Dhaka but not without going through untold sufferings.
"Two trains -- Subarna Express and Mohanagar Provati - reached Dhaka but only the Airport Railway Station, not their final destination Kamalapur Railway Station,” said a senior railway official seekinganonymity.
"The government harassed a large number of passengers to stop a small number of BNP-Jamaat men," said a railway official.
A total of 51 trains were supposed to reach Kamalapur yesterday but none made it due to directives from government high-ups. The railway lostTk 5-7 lakh as it had to pay passengers their money back when they returned their tickets.
Asked why trains were stopped on their way to Dhaka, Railway Minister Mujibul Haq said the step was taken "to prevent subversive acts and save people's lives”.