Strike threat withdrawn

Transport workers have withdrawn the threat to begin a 36-hour strike in greater Chittagong region after their ‘missing’ leader was found in Mirsarai. Bangladesh Road Transport Workers’ Federation (BRTWF) leader Nurul Islam, abducted in Chittagong by armed miscreants on Wednesday night, was found on Friday night. Nurul Islam, cultural affairs secretary of the BRTWF, contacted his family from Baroyar Haat (bazaar) of Chittagong’s Mirsarai at 8:15pm on Friday. Mrinal Chowdhury, BRTWF’s east zone chief, quoting Nurul Islam, said “Islam’s captors put him on a Chittagong-bound bus from Feni’s Lalpool in the evening. He got off at Baroyar Haat and called his family and the organisation from a counter of ‘Choice Paribahan’,” Chowdhury said. “Then we contacted police,” he added. He said the law-enforcers told him that a Detective Branch team was on their way to Mirsarai to pick him up and escort him back to the port city.
Meanwhile, the BRTWF has called off their 36-hour transport strike which would have started from August 26 morning in case Islam remained untraced until then.
Transport workers had alleged that a group of gunmen abducted Chittagong Metropolitan Human Hauler Workers’ Union General Secretary Islam from the port city’s EPZ area on Wednesday night at gun point, according to a news agency.
- biplab