Chattogram's Sunil das this morning went to Karnaphuli Shah Amanat Bridge area to catch a bus to his village home in Satkania upazila for some urgent work, but to his surprise he saw no public bus leaving from the makeshift bus terminal.
After asking around, he found out that a strike was called by Chattogram Dakkhinanchol-Cox's Bazar-Bandarban Zila Sarak Paribahan Malik Sramik Oikya Parishad on 20 southern Chattogram routes.
"What kind of strike is this without any kind of pre-announcement? We don't know anything about this strike," said Sunil. "I have to go to my village home at Satkania on urgent business but I am stuck here for almost three hours."
Like Sunil, hundreds of passengers were stuck due to the sudden strike by the Oikya Parishad.
Their demands included prohibiting buses from operating without route permits and stopping three-wheelers and human hauliers from operating on highways.
No bus left the terminal since 6:00am today after a 12-hour strike was called by the union. Passengers said no bus had left since morning, and they had to suffer at the makeshift terminal waiting for hours under the scorching sun.
As there are no toilets for passengers at the makeshift bus terminal, the passengers had suffered more.
"There is no waiting arrangement here, I feel very unwell under the sun," said Abdul Mannan, another passenger.
The Malik Sramik Oikya Parishad's Joint Convener Mohammad Musa said, "We observed a two-hour strike on October 9 for the same demands.
"On that day we said, if the administration does not take initiatives to implement our demands by October 15, we would be compelled to go for greater movement. As our demands have not been met, we have declared today's programme," he said.
Chattogram BRTA Assistant Director (General) Amir Khasru Bhuiyan for his comment in this regard but he did not answer his phone.
