Rangpur bus strike: Commuters suffer ahead of BNP rally

Rangpur Motor Owners Association called a sudden strike two days before BNP's mass rally in Rangpur. Due to the strike, all transport links with the district have been stopped across the country. As a result, common people are suffering.

BNP leaders say that after Chittagong, Mymensingh and Khulna, Rangpur has been given a strike by the government to create obstacles their mass rally.

However, they are hopeful that lakhs of leaders and workers will appear in the Rangpur division mass rally to face any situation including strike.

It is known that due to the strike called for 36 hours from Friday (October 28) morning to Saturday (October 29) 6 am to 6 pm in protest against traffic on the highway and administrative harassment on the Rangpur-Kurigram route, buses, minibuses, trucks, Microbus service has stopped.

As a result, transport communication with Rangpur across the country is closed. Therefore, the passengers have to go to the destination with high fare. Many are returning home without being able to go to their destination.

Transport worker Mosed Ali told to Dhaka Prokash, due to the strike in Rangpur, our income will be stopped for two days. Because the owner does not pay us if the bus does not run. In this, the family will have to run under tension. We never want the bus to stop. The owners decided to stop the bus. But if the bus stops, we suffer like common people.

Ahmed Hasan, a student of Rangpur Medical College who came to Rangpur bus terminal told to Dhaka Prokash, I came to the bus stand to go to Bogra. But when I came, I saw that the bus service was stopped. No bus is plying from Rangpur. I don't know how to go now.

Thousands of BNP leaders and workers from different districts have come to Rangpur since Thursday (October 27) afternoon thinking about the vehicle strike.

The BNP leaders claimed that the strike was called to prevent the leaders and activists from different districts and upazilas from coming to the mass gathering.

Rangpur District Motor Owners Association President AKM Mozammel Haque told to Dhaka Prokash, the government has made the law in view of the demands of transport owners for safety on the highway. But various illegal vehicles are still plying on the highways of Rangpur including Nachiman, Karimon, Bhatavti.

Accidents often occur because of this. In such a situation, we have called for a transport strike on all routes of Rangpur from Friday morning to Saturday evening by meeting some organizations to stop these traffic on the highway, he added.