Indefinite transport strike begins in 10 dists

Staff Correspondent, Khulna: Transport workers went on an indefinite strike in 10 districts of Khulna division on Sunday protesting the life term imprisonment of a bus driver in a case filed over a road accident that killed five people, including noted filmmaker Tareque Masud and cinematographer Mishuk Munier.

The 10 districts are: Bagerhat, Chuadanga, Jessore, Jhenaidah, Khulna, Kushtia, Magura, Meherpur, Narail and Satkhira.

No long distance buses were seen plying the roads in the morning due to the strike, causing immense sufferings to commuters.

Loading and unloading of goods at Benapole land port came to a halt due to the strike.

Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation announced the strike at an emergency meeting at its regional committee’s office in Jessore on Saturday.

On Wednesday, a court in Manikganj sentenced bus driver Jamir Hossain of Daulatdiar village of Chuadanga district, to life term imprisonment in a case filed over the deaths Tareque and Munier.

The court also fined the driver Tk 5,000 and he will have to suffer three months more imprisonment in default to pay the fine.

He was also awarded two years more imprisonment and fined Tk 2000, in default, to serve one month more imprisonment, for using his expired driving license during the incident.

Tareque Masud, Mishuk Munier and three others were killed as a microbus, carrying them, collided with a bus, driven by the convict Jamir, on Dhaka-Aricha Highway in Ghior upazila while returning to Dhaka from Manikganj on August 13, 2011.

risingbd/Khulna/Feb 26, 2017/Mohammad Nuruzzaman/A K Azad