Small business owners protest closure of shops on 1st day of ‘lockdown’

Shop owners and employees of different markets in the New Market and nearby areas in Dhaka demonstrated for the second consecutive day today, protesting the government restriction on their businesses for seven days.

They demanded that the government allow them to keep their shops open while maintaining health safety rules.

Witnesses said several hundred shop owners arrived in the market area around 10am and started demonstrating to press home their demands.

Additional police forces have been deployed there to keep the situation under control, SM Kaiyum, officer-in-charge of New Market Police Station, confirmed.

"We have managed to convince them to leave the spot," he said.

Meanwhile, many office-goers who couldn't get any public transport to go to work in the capital, also demonstrated -- blocking the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in Rayerbagh area around 9am, said Mazharul Islam, officer-in-charge of Jatrabari Police Station.

Protestors shouted slogans to remove restrictions on public transport, police said.

In Rajshahi, traders demanded exclusion of small businesses from the "lockdown", reports our staff correspondent.

They blocked the Shaheb Bazar road, in the middle of the city, this morning and staged demonstration. Several shops in the popular RDA market near Zero point were kept open.