Unrest for another week and retailers will shutter shops
Retailers have threatened to shut all shops across the country if the political parties do not put a lid on the violence by next week.
“What kind of movement it is that kills innocent people? We are on the verge of bankruptcy owing to the last 19 days of violent politics,” SA Kader Kiron, chairman of Bangladesh Dokan Malik Samity, a platform of shop owners, said yesterday at a press briefing in the capital.
Hardly any customer comes although the shops remain open amid blockades and hartals, he said, adding that about Tk 300 crore is lost a day in profits for the unrest.
About one crore families are involved with the industry, he said.
“We respect the politicians, but we doubt if they are worthy of our deference anymore. The country's existence is in threat -- we have no other option but to take matters into our own hands.”
Subsequently, the platform has decided to seek appointments with the two major parties' top leaders so that the shop owners can highlight their plight and place their demands.
They will wait one week and if no response is received from the political parties by then, they will form a human chain and then go for a hunger strike. Finally, they will shut shop.
“If we go for the final movement, we will not come back from it,” Kiron said, adding that just one day's demonstration by the shop owners will be more potent than ten days' of programme of political parties.
Kiron went on to urge the two major political parties to sit down and talk things through. “There is nothing that cannot be solved through discussions.”
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