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Roundup: Bus services resume in Bangladesh after workers' unions call off countrywide strike

Xinhua, March 1, 2017 Adjust font size:

Buses resumed services across Bangladesh on Wednesday evening after road transport workers' unions called off their indefinite strike, which created untold sufferings for millions of travelers.

The strike was withdrawn after relevant Bangladeshi ministers held an emergency meeting with representatives of several unions of transport owners and workers on Wednesday afternoon.

Emerging from the meeting, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, also the executive president of Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Association, in a press briefing urged the workers to return to work, citing "assurances from the government to resolve their grievances."

The blockade was called by road transport workers' unions which have vowed to continue with the strike until two convicted drivers are released.

Bangladesh's capital Dhaka was almost isolated from rest of the country on Wednesday as the nationwide indefinite strike by transport workers protesting conviction of the drivers entered the second day.

Almost all long-distance buses stayed indoor.

Only a few private buses and cars were in the streets in Dhaka, leaving hundreds of thousands of travelers, especially commuters, patients and students, stranded.

Man-peddled rickshaws and auto-rickshaws were seen to dominate the city streets.

Tens of thousands of people in Dhaka's major bus terminals suffered immensely as transport workers suspended bus operations totally.

On Wednesday morning agitating workers also vandalized buses in parts of Dhaka when some drivers tried to operate during the suspension.

A transport worker was reportedly shot as fresh clashes with policemen ensued at Dhaka's largest Gabtoli bus terminal, center of the strike protesting conviction of the drivers.

On Feb. 22, a court in Manikganj district, some 63 km northwest of capital Dhaka, awarded life sentence for a trucker convicting him of killing eminent filmmaker Tareque Masud and media personality Mishuk Munier in a road crash in 2011.

Also on Monday in Dhaka, a court sentenced a trucker to death for running over and killing a woman in Savar on the outskirts of the capital in 2003. A government probe later found that both drivers have been negligent.

Transport workers have been urged to respect the court verdicts.

No major incidents have been reported owing to the strike since Tuesday. Endit