Locals block Sylhet-Tamabil highway protesting rising road accidents

Traffic on Sylhet-Tamabil-Jaflong highway remained suspended since Tuesday morning as local people put up a barricade at Jaintia Gate protesting frequent road accidents on the highway.

Local people, under the banner of residents of Chiknagul Union, took to the road around 11 am and blocked the highway, reports UNB. 

The protesters demanded punishment for those involved in different road accidents in the past six months after arrest, including the driving of vehicles by unlicensed drivers and underage drivers, conducting mobile court drives on the highway twice a month, stopping the transportation of cattle, buffalo, and smuggled goods by pick-up vans, taking steps to stop the movement of unauthorised CNG-run autorickshaws, and the movement of human haulers on highways.

Jaintapur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sajedul Islam, Assistant superintendent of Gowainghat-Companiganj circle Shahidur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Jaintapur Model Policed Station Tajul Islam, Traffic Inspector of District Police Rafique Ahmed and Chiknagul union unit Awami League President Abul Hasan Chowdhury rushed to the spot and tried to settle the issue.

Earlier on Monday, six people, including three members of a family, were killed and five others were injured in a head-on collision between a pickup van and a human hauler on Sylhet-Tamabil highway at Darbast.