Restaurants in Sylhet will remain shut for an indefinite period from Wednesday in protest against a mobile court drive against substandard food and alleged irregularities by some eateries.

During the drive on Tuesday magistrates ordered closure of three eateries for serving substandard food and not having licenses and detained two staff members.

The drive led restaurant workers to immediately take to the streets and block the Zindabazar road at the centre of the city for about an hour causing long traffic jam.

They demanded that the drive be halted and the detained workers be released immediately.

Shanto Deb, President of Sylhet Caterers Owners’ Association said a mobile court drive conducted by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on Tuesday sealed Bhojon Bilash restaurant and detained its manager, supervisor while Pach Bhai and Panshi restaurant were fined Tk 80,000 each.

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“When the restaurant business has only started recovering from the losses of Covid-19 pandemic, they are harassing the restaurant owners in the name of conducting drives. If there is any problem they can fine but there is no rule of sealing off a restaurant,” he said.

From Wednesday all the restaurants in Sylhet will remain shut and the strike will continue until the demands are met, he said.

The decision of going on strike was taken at a meeting held at the Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and Industries hall room earlier in the day attended by Sylhet City Corporation Mayor Ariful Haque, President of SCCI ATM Shoeb, leaders of Sylhet Restaurant Owners’ association and Sylhet Caterers Owners’ Association.

Meanwhile, Magistrate Palash kumar Bashu who led the drive said, many irregularities were found in the food quality of the fined restaurants.

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Bhojon Bilash did not renew their trade license since 2019 and they had no legal documents that authorize them to serve food, he said.

“Temporarily we have sealed the restaurant and taken two officials of other restaurants for interrogation,” said the magistrate.

Magistrate Palash Kumar claimed in earlier drives they found three to five days old stale foods in these restaurants but they still did not change.