Public transport thin in Dhaka amid sporadic demos, road blocks

The presence of public transport was very thin in Dhaka yesterday amid demonstrations by students in various areas of the city to protest against the recent attacks on students, killings and arrests.

Since the morning, students from various institutions have taken to the streets at Jatrabari, Rayerbagh, and Science Lab, among other areas. The Dhaka-Chattogram Highway was also blocked by the protesters at Signboard area, disrupting vehicular movement via here.

In addition, protesters in droves marched along various roads towards the Central Shaheed Minar to join the protest programme organised by the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

Thousands of students as well as people from all walks of life demonstrated at Aftabnagar, Badda, Rampura, Banasree, Mirpur-10, Science Lab, and Uttara.

Around 2:30pm, protesters blocked the Mirpur Road near the Labaid Hospital at Science Lab area, disrupting vehicular movement for around half an hour. Around 3pm, they started a march from here towards the Shaheed Minar.

In New Market area, protesters from various areas, in separate groups, marched through here towards Shaheed Minar from 3pm to 5pm.

Visiting the Green Road in Panthapath area, relatively less movement of people was observed as rickshaw-pullers were seen searching for passengers.  

At the Mirpur-10 intersection, students from various colleges and universities demonstrated for around five hours, from 12pm to 4:50pm, diverting the vehicles bound for this road to Mirpur-2.

At Mirpur-10, the turnout of protesters was nearly 8,000-10,000 after 2pm.

Due to the demonstrations, sales at various markets and shopping malls in the city were also impacted. At Mirpur-10 intersection, most of the shops in the area were found shuttered during the nearly 5-hour protest programme.

During a visit yesterday, this correspondent found the New Market mostly devoid of customers.

Mohammad Jashim Majumder, proprietor of Tisha Fashion at New Market, told The Business Standard, “Customers refrain from stepping out of their residences during such turmoil [outside]

“We have no sales. The shop employs four workers; however, the total sales for the entire day amounted to only Tk2,000.”

Another trader in the market, Shaon, said for several days now, their sales had decreased to such a point that it is insufficient to pay for the daily meals of the three staff of the shop.