The lone CNG refuelling station in Rajshahi city remained shut for five hours Wednesday noon as a group of bus labourers beat up the station staff who denied providing gas to a vehicle breaking the queue, leaving hundreds of gas-driven vehicles stranded.  

The bus labourers also forced police to arrest three staff -- Imam Ali, Golam Mostafa and Rakibul Islam -- of MSS NB Filling and CNG Station in Kharkhari area. However, the staff were released later on.

It all started around 11:30am when some of the station staff refused to provide gas to a microbus brought there by a bus labourer -- Jewel Rana -- breaking the line, leading to a scuffle, said Sub-inspector Aktar Hossain of Boalia Police Station.

Following that, Rana called the fellow bus labourers; over a hundred of them gathered at the CNG station in half an hour, and beat the three station staff, Aktar said.

The police had actually rescued the staff, the SI said, adding that the bus labourers, who were in their hundreds, would have created chaos if the staff had not been arrested.

Hundreds of CNG-driven vehicles, private cars, microbuses were stranded as the station authorities shut down the outlet protesting the beating by bus labourers and demanding release of the three staff.

Later, the station opened at 5:00pm after the police freed the staff following a reconciliation between the station authorities and a group of labour leaders led by Mahtab Ali, general secretary of Rajshahi district Motor Sramik Union, at Boalia Police Station, the SI said.