Commuters suffer as cops obstruct them on roads
Staff Correspondent
Hundreds of people, mainly office-goers, passed a very difficult day in the city yesterday as police obstructed them around the Bangladesh Secretariat during the 14-party's planned sit-in.Many of them were harassed while going to their workplaces as the authorities slapped a ban on rallies and meetings to foil the opposition programme. However, a considerable number of government employees did not go to their offices to make it a three-day holiday including the weekend. Police put up barbed wire barricades at different points including Matsya Bhaban, High Court intersection, Zero Point, Abdul Gani Road, Segunbagicha and BMA Bhaban lanes, Bijoynagar, and Baitul Mukarram North Gate. They did not allow public and private buses, and other motorised and non-motorised vehicles to ply the roads and lanes around the secretariat to ward off any trouble. Many office-goers alleged that the police did not allow them to enter the restricted area even after seeing their identity cards. Since morning the 14-party opposition combine leaders and workers gathered at different entry points and staged sit-in and rallies near the police barricades. All the buses from Elephant Road and Farmgate were seen taking U-turn at Shahbagh in the morning, forcing the passengers to get out of the vehicles and walk towards the secretariat, Paltan and Gulistan areas. "On way to my office at Gulistan, I walked up to Matsya Bhaban, but police did not allow me to cross the barbed wire barricade put up there," said Mohammad Sayeed. "I waited there for several hours and then came back." Some government employees even alleged that the police obstructed their entering the secretariat. "It was 11:00 in the morning when I was returning to office after an official meeting outside the secretariat. But I could not secure permission from police," an employee of food and disaster management ministry, requesting anonymity, told The Daily Star. The residents in the areas near the secretariat also suffered as many of them were not allowed to go to markets or banks. Students could not go to their schools. "Downtown Dhaka virtually turned into an area under siege that seriously hampered regular activities of people," commented an advocate of the High Court.
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