Transport owners will enforce an indefinite strike beginning at 6:00 am on Thursday in all eight districts of Rajshahi division to press home for various demands ahead of the BNP’s rally on Saturday.
The main opposition BNP said that the strike was called to spoil their rally, but the transport owners rejected the allegation.
Safakat Manjur, president of Rajshahi Divisional Transport Owners’ Association, said they took the decision following a joint meeting at the office of Rajshahi Road Transport Group on Wednesday.
The strike has no link with the BNP’s rally as they gave an ultimatum to meet their demands earlier, he said.
Read more: BNP gears up for Saturday’s rally in Rajshahi
On November 26, the Divisional Transport Owners and Workers Solidarity Council gave an ultimatum to the authority concerned to meet their 10-point demand by November 30.
They had threatened to go for the indefinite strike from December 1 if the demands were not met by the deadline.
Safkat said they called the strike for various demands including the scrapping of the Road Transport Act 2018 and the ban on movement of illegal three-wheelers and battery-driven auto-rickshaws on highways by November 30.
He said all types of passenger and goods carrying vehicles will remain under purview of the strike.
“We will call off the strike if any assurance comes in favour of our demands”, he said.
Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu, an organising secretary of the BNP and coordinator of the mass rally committee, said the strike was called to refrain the leaders and activists from joining the rally.
He said that the rally would be organised successfully at any cost.
The BNP on September 27 announced a series of public rallies in 10 divisional and big cities. The party began the rallies by holding the first one in Chattogram on October 12.
Transport owners and workers called strikes ahead of all the rallies in various cities, except in Chattogram and Cumilla.
The BNP will end its divisional rallies through a mass gathering in Dhaka city on December 10.
Read more: No transport strike during BNP’s Dhaka rally: Obaidul Quader