CHITTAGONG, Oct 30: Transport operators have decided to run their vehicles on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway and other inter-district routes during hartal, following police assurance of providing security.
The officials of Chattagram Paribahan Malik Samity have said they will operate buses, trucks and covered vans with passengers and goods from Chittagong to Dhaka and other destinations across the country from Thursday night despite 24-hour hartal of Jamaat-Shibir.
SP of Chittagong Hafiz Akhtar assured the owners and operators of inter-district buses, trucks and covered vans of providing security at a meeting on Thursday morning.
He called the meeting after getting instructions from the higher authority concerned in Dhaka. There he told the transport operators that all sorts of police support will be given to them, if they run their vehicles on the inter-district routes.
The SP urged the officers-in-charge of police stations of the district to ensure full support to the transport operators, and asked the police and BGB members to remain vigilant.
He also called on the SPs of Feni, Comilla and Cox's Bazar districts to render their cooperation to the vehicle owners and drivers.
President of Purbanchal Sarak Paribahan Shramik Federation Mrinal Chowdhury told the meting that some trucks and covered vans, carrying export and import cargo, are plying the inter-district routes. But the bus passengers are declining to move during hartal due to lack of security.
He, however, said a large number of bus passengers travel in night, and the buses will start operating from Thursday night on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. Buses will also ply the routes from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati and Khagrachhari.
"As the SP has assured us of providing security and support with his forces, we have decided to run our vehicles with passengers and cargo from Thursday night," he told the reporters after the meeting.
ASP (Special Branch) of Chittagong Naimul Hasan said, "We will remain fully alert, so that the miscreants cannot attack the transports and resort to any untoward activity."
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has called 24-hour hartal from Thursday morning and 48-hour hartal from Sunday morning to protest the verdict on Matiur Rahman Nizami, amir of the party, for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
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