Train Schedule Disruption
Passengers continue to suffer
Massive disruptions in train schedules in almost all routes have intensified passengers’ suffering in the wake of attacks on railway establishments and violence during the opposition’s countrywide blockade programme. The railway communication between Dhaka and outlying destinations became almost paralysed for the third consecutive day on Thursday due to arson attacks on trains and removal of rail lines in many places.
The Bangladesh Railway has deployed around 4,000 additional Ansar members to guard ‘risky’ spots all over the country.
No Chittagong- and Noakhali-bound trains left Dhaka till Thursday evening.
People were moving here and there at the Kamalapur Rail Station to know current positions of their desired trains as most of them were three to six hours late.
The authorities took the tickets back for the second day at the station.
When some of the Chittagong- and Noakhali-bound passengers asked the station master Dipendra Saha about the train schedules, he asked them to return their tickets if they could not wait.
‘I don’t want to return my ticket! If I do so, how will I go back to Chittagong?’ asked Saifullah, a businessman.
Rakibuddin, a small trader who came to the station with his wife and two infants, said he wished to board on Noakhali-bound Upukul Express which would be late for at least two hours.
‘We have nothing to do but to wait here till the train comes,’ he added.
Many trains including Khulna-bound Shundarban Express was late by three hours, Dewanganj-bound Tista Express by four hours, Kishoreganj-bound Egarosindhur Prabhati by five hours and Chittagong-bound Shuborna Express was delayed by at least six hours behind the schedules.
People swooped on Rajshahi-bound Silk City and Sylhet-bound Kalni Express as the intercity trains reached the station.
Moreover, suspension of inter-district buses on long-routes due to the blockade added to the passengers’ sufferings.
The railways minister, Mohammad Mazibul Hoque, at a press conference said the authorities had identified a total of 632 risky points around the country where violence against railways could take place.
‘After discussion, 3,792 Ansar members have been deployed at the risky points. We also have 7,092 members of Railway Nirapatta Bahini and Government Railway Police and an additional 1,050 Ansar battalion,’ he said.
He claimed the situation was still normal despite the blockade.
On Thursday miscreants removed slippers from Tongi-Dhirasram section and uprooted rail line from Akhaura-Laksham section and Bonarpara-Shantahar section which disrupted rail communications in the sections.
Asked about the railway security, state minister for home Shamsul Haque said law enforcement agencies across the country had been asked to conduct ‘combing operations’ against those involved in attacks on railways.
He said the deputy commissioners and superintendents of police in each district had been asked to mobilise police and paramilitary forces against subversive acts including attacks on railway establishments during the opposition’s countrywide 71-hour blockade that began on Tuesday.
‘Police, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh and Ansar have been asked to take all-out steps against any kind of destructive activities,’ Shamsul Haque told New Age.
Violence erupted on Monday evening immediately after the declaration of the schedule for 10th parliamentary election, which was rejected by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led 18-party alliance.
Intercity road and rail communications across the country collapsed on Tuesday as the pro-BNP pickets blocked highways and removed fishplates of rail lines in many places disrupting train services on major routes including Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Rajshahi.
The BNP-led 18-party alliance on Monday evening announced the rail-road-waterway blockade programme rejecting the election schedule that fixed January 5, 2014 as the polling day.
-With New Age input
