A huge number of people on Monday returned to the capital by bus, train and launch after celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr. Officials of Bangladesh Railway, bus and launch companies said most of the people who went out of the capital came back on Monday because ofthe two-day countrywide strike that begins today.Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has called the general strike.At Kamalpur Rail Station a huge number of people were seen streaming into the city.
‘I have come back to Dhaka as from tomorrow (Tuesday) there will be strike. I do not want to take any risk in hartal days,’ said Mafijur Rahman, a government schoolteacher who returned from Rajshahi.
The station master, Nripendra Chandra Saha, told New Age that the stream of Dhaka-bound people was the largest on Monday since Saturday from when people started coming back to the city.
‘Train service will not be suspended during the strike,’ he added.
Bus company employees at Gabtoli terminal said they saw the most crowds at the terminal on the day.
People are in a frenzy to reach the capital before hartal days, said the employees.
‘Almost all of our buses were filled with passengers heading towards Dhaka,’ said an employee of Hanif Enterprise.
Meanwhile some people left Dhaka on Monday by bus as the hartal for Tuesday and Wednesday followed by the National Mourning Day on August 15 and the two-day weekend were a good occasion to spend five straight days in the countryside.
Dhaka Sarak Paribahan Samity on Monday in a press release said long-route buses would not run on hartal days while buses on district routes would run as usual.
-With New Age input
