Transport workers go on indefinite strike in Dinajpur

Transport workers went on an indefinite strike on all routes of Dinajpur Thursday morning protesting the arrest of eight fellow workers and the attack on a transport leader.

Locals said transport workers put up barricades in many places including Dinajpur central bus terminal and Baluadanga bus stand in the morning, reports UNB.   

No passenger buses and goods-laden trucks left the district since morning due to the strike, causing sufferings to common people.

Fazle Rabbi, general secretary of the district Motor Transport Workers’ Union, said police arrested eight transport workers including Ambulance Drivers’s Union general secretary Mainuddin following separate clashes among ambulance drivers and police and human hauler (Paglu) drivers and transport workers in Baluadanga Thursday night.

As police did not release the detainees till morning, transport workers called for an indefinite transport strike in the district.

Transport workers alleged that human hauler drivers beat Baluadanga bus stand general secretary Dablu up over controlling transport business in the town. Police did not take any action against the attackers after getting complaint which created anger among the transport workers.

In a separate incident, ambulance drivers of M Abdur Rahim Medical College Hospital locked into a clash with police at night, protesting the arrest of six ambulance drivers.

Police detained the six drivers over an allegation filed by Md Mamun, an official of the hospital, that ambulance drivers were taking additional money from the patients in hostage. 

A meeting among transport workers-owners, police, and the administration was underway Thursday noon to settle the matter.