'Who is going to buy my bread in this blockade'
Commuters and small businesses suffer due to lack of public transport, long-haul buses on day 2 of BNP, Jamaat blockade
Mohammad Enayet, a bread seller at Kallyanpur bus stand, is now struggling to make ends meet due to the ongoing BNP, Jamaat blockade.
He said a few long-haul buses left the station yesterday on the first day of the blockade.
With the limited sale, Enayet still managed to make Tk200, one-fifth of what he usually makes, yesterday.
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"With most of the counters closed today, who is going to buy my bread?" Enayet asked.
He barely managed to earn Tk150 today, which is nowhere near enough to put food on the table for his family of three.
Mohammad Hridoy, a class 10 student, has an exam to attend at Chapainawabganj. But he cannot return now as no long-haul buses are leaving Dhaka for the district amid the 3-day blockade announced by BNP, its allies and Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.
"The guy at the counter told me they still don't know whether any bus will leave for Chapainawabganj or not. They can let me know in the afternoon," he said.
When asked, Mohammad Mintu, Kallyanpur counter manager of Chapainawabganj bound Ktc Hanif, said they are not running their bus services due to the lack of passengers.
"We can't even get the fuel money if we leave the bus with the two-three passengers who are here now," he said.
Visiting Technical intersection, Kallyanpur, Shyamoli, Asadgate and Sobhanbag between 9-10am today, this correspondent witnessed lean traffic.
The roads usually remain jam-packed during this time of the day. But there were only a few buses running on the streets. The flow of traffic increased a little compared to yesterday.
It was mostly rickshaws — banned from entering some of these roads on regular days — hailing the roads.
On 29 October, BNP announced a blockade on 31 October, 1 and 2 November in protest of Sunday's detention of the party's General Secretary Mirza Fakhrul Alamgir, the attacks on the 28 October citywide rallies and the killing of numerous party activists.
The next day, Jamaat e Islami Bangladesh also called for a three-day blockade on vehicle movement on road, rail and waterways starting 31 October, coinciding with the blockade announced earlier by the BNP.
On the same night, eight other opposition parties also joined hands with BNP and Jamaat, saying they would also enforce the blockade separately.
