Business activities between Bangladesh and India through Hili land port in the border district of Dinajpur have been suspended since Sunday morning due to a sudden strike enforced by Indian truckers following an alleged attack on them by Bangladeshis for an attempt to intrude into locality.   

No truck carrying goods including maize, spicy and stone entered Bangladesh territory though the land port from India on the whole day as the truckers called a sudden strike protesting the attack by Bangladeshis in the port area on Saturday.

Hundreds of trucks loaded with goods including rotting ones got stuck on the Indian side due to the sudden strike.

Harun-ur Rashid, a leader of Hili based import-export organisation, said security guards of private operator ‘Panama Land Port’ barred some Indian truck drivers from entering locality violating rules prepared by business organizations from the both countries.

The truckers allegedly locked into altercations with the security guards over the matter and subsequently a chaos broke out among them, he said.  

Enraged by it, the drivers parked their vehicles randomly on the road in the port area and at one stage they were harassed physically by locals, he said.

Though Indian exporters sent letters to their Bangladeshi counters with a proposal to settle the issue on Sunday, finally no meetings were held between them, said Harun, also chairman of Hakimpur upazila parishad.   

He hoped that the deadlock would be solved tomorrow after a bilateral meeting between the countries.