Staff Reporter :
No long route bus was operated from Dhaka and in other parts of the country fearing vandalism during the ongoing students’ demonstrations for safe road.
As a result, thousands of passengers suffered tremendously and faced difficulties for shortage of transports.
Visiting the bus terminals this correspondent observed that no bus left or entered the Mohakhali and the Gabtoli Bus Terminals on Thursday. Several hundred passengers were seen waiting for inter- district buses.
Babul Sarker, a private service holder, told The New Nation that it was very very urgent for him to go to Dinajpur. When he reached the Mohakhali Bus Terminal the counter staff informed that no bus would ply on Thursday,” Babul Sarker said.
Tahmina Begum, a house wife who waited at Mymensingh Bus Terminal, told The New Nation district correspondent that she had come from a rural area of the district for going to Dhaka. But she got no bus in the terminal. Finally she returned home. Mohakhali Bus Terminal Owners Association President Abul Kalam told The New Nation that very few inter-district buses left the terminal on Thursday morning.
When those buses reached Tongi College Gate area in Gazipur, some people vandalised the vehicles, he said.
Since then no bus left or entered the terminal for security reasons on the roads, he said.
Very few inter-district buses entered the Gabtali terminal in the morning, while hundreds of buses were seen parked inside the terminal. Gabtoli Bus Terminal Workers Union president Mofijul Huq Bebu said the workers had nothing to do if owners did not want to run vehicle
People in Dhaka like elsewhere in the country were suffered immensely due to shortage of transports and inclement weather. City service buses were almost absent since morning.
In Mymensingh, District Bus Owners Association also stopped running any bus from different terminals.
Bangladesh Road Transport Owners’ Association General Secretary Khandakar Enayet Ullah said that the owners took the decision by themselves.
The association knew nothing, he said.
“If the owners want to save their vehicles from vandalism, what can we say?” he asked, adding that many vehicles were burnt in last few days of protests.
In view of deaths of two Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College students in an accident at Kurmitola, caused by two racing buses on Sunday, agitated students continued their protests for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday, seeking justice for the deaths and demanding discipline in the road transport sector.
The Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Wednesday alleged that vested interests were taking the advantage of the protest and vandalised total 309 vehicles between July 29 and July 31 and set eight vehicles, including one police vehicle and one fire service vehicle, on fire.
