City Road are Empty on 12 March

City dwellers are facing severe problem as all the public transport are barred from their service.

All the city bus service are suspended as ruling party activists and leader are barring them from entering the city with an opposition-sponsored mass rally scheduled to begin in hours.

Pro-AL launch workers barred passengers get down at Sadarghat when they reached there in two launches from Shariatpur and Patuakhali in the morning.

Visiting different parts of the city and areas on the outskirts reported that the police and AL men are only letting some of those carrying their office identity cards to travel to their offices in the city after much requests.

Besides obstruction at different entry points, people are subjected to extensive checking and harassment at watch-posts installed at different points of the city in the name of security.

“Has curfew been slapped on the city?” an NGO worker reacted at Gabtoli after he had managed to convince the police that he does not have any intention to participate in the opposition’s rally.

On January 9, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from a Chittagong rally announced a mass rally for March 12 to mount pressure on the government to restore the caretaker government system for the next parliamentary election.

The government meantime “vowed to resist any bid by the BNP to create anarchy” in the name of rally and cut off the city from rest of the country so that people cannot join the opposition programme.

The Dhaka dwellers started the day amid fears of violence ahead of the opposition rally.

The bustling capital turned unusually calm with the absence of passenger buses, thin presence of private cars and other vehicles.

Being uncertain what might happen during the day, many people would not go outside their houses, they said on Sunday. Many city hotels and guesthouses remain closed.

Many guardians said they would not send their children to schools Monday though school authorities have not officially closed their schools on this occasion.

Unprecedented highhandedness of the law enforcers and intelligence men caused immense sufferings to people and bred panic and confusion since Sunday.

Posted in: City Road