Traffic chaos on city roads
The capital suffered a traffic nightmare yesterday following student protests blocking roads, an anti-militancy procession and movements of two VIPs, according to the city police's traffic control room.
These only compounded the city's usual Sunday gridlocks. As a result, commuters had to face untold sufferings throughout the city on the first workday of the week, after a two-day weekend and the Janmashtami holiday.
Students of Willes Little Flower School and Jagannath University demonstrated blocking several streets to press home their demands, which contributed to the gridlocks.
The situation worsened when traffic had to be restricted (for sometime) to facilitate the movements of the president to the airport and the prime minister to the Osmani Memorial Auditorium, said officials at the traffic control room of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
An anti-militancy procession, led by Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, also contributed to the horrendous traffic snarl-up, they said.
The procession brought out by Sramik Karmachari Peshajibi Muktijoddha Somonnoy Parishad, a platform of workers, professionals and freedom fighters, was seen heading towards the Jatiya Press Club via the Purana Paltan intersection.
According to the control room officials, several hundred students of Willes Little Flower School demonstrated blocking the busy thoroughfare in front of their school in Kakrail, protesting the killing of a fellow female student.
Stabbed by her “stalker” four days ago, Suraiya Akter Risha, an eighth-grader, died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 8:30am yesterday, Bachchu Mia, a sub-inspector at the DMCH police outpost, told The Daily Star.
After the news spread, her classmates and other students of the school took to the street and staged a sit-in, demanding immediate arrest of the attacker, said Moshiure Rahman, officer-in-charge of Ramna Police Station.
Vehicular movement remained totally snapped throughout Kakrail, Moghbazar and old town until noon as a result of blockades by schoolkids and Jagannath University students, said Nusrat Jahan Mukta, an assistant commissioner of traffic police.
For several hours, no vehicle could pass through Moghbazar and Kakrail, she said, adding that the situation became normal around 2:00pm.
The students of Jagannath University demonstrated blocking two roads in old Dhaka to press home their demand for residential halls.
“It took double the usual time to get back home from my daughter's school as we were stuck on the Banani flyover for half an hour,” said Atifa Karim, who was taking her two daughters home in Gulshan from Uttara.
“After a hectic day at school, both of my daughters became extremely tired for being stuck at the jam that had started from Banani overpass,” she said.
Raihan Ahmad, who lives in Dhanmondi, said it took him longer than usual to go to work in Farmgate.
“I was travelling in a rickshaw and got stuck in a terrible jam near the Bridge-8 [in Dhanmondi],” he said, adding that he got down there and walked to Mirpur road to take another rickshaw in which he finally reached his office.
Many of those travelling in cars got down too leaving their vehicles with drivers and started to walk to their destination, he said.
Samiul Hasan said he was stranded for 50 minutes on Dhanmodi Road-27 in his car while he was going to Rapa Plaza from his home in Dhanmondi. Usually, it is a 10-minute ride.
Frustrated, he went back home.
Traffic movement came almost to a halt on the Airport Road and Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Mozaffar Hossain, who lives in Dhaka Cantonment, said.
He also said it took him one hour to get to his Karwan Bazaar office instead of the usual half an hour.
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