Trouble over toll

A youth was killed yesterday as police opened fire during a clash with transport workers and locals protesting the toll hike at the First Bangladesh-China Friendship (Buriganga 1) Bridge in Hasnabad of Dhaka.

The two-and-a-half-hour battle also left about a hundred people injured. They include 25 policemen and a number of workers and locals.

Sohel Hawlader, 25, a truck helper, was taken to Ikuria General Hospital with bullet injures. Doctors declared him dead around 10:30am, said agitators and hospital staff.

Morgue sources at Sir Salimullah Medical College said a bullet pierced Sohel's back and came out through his chest.

Siddik, 40, Billal Hossain, 20, and Monikul Islam Akash, 24, were being treated at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for bullet and pellet wounds yesterday. They said they were neither transport workers nor involved in the protest.

The rest suffered minor wounds, being hit with batons or brick chips. Sixteen policemen took treatment at Ikuria General Hospital and Central Police Hospital in Rajarbagh. 

Locals and workers, mostly truck drivers and helpers, fought several hundred police who were allegedly backed by supporters of the lessee of the bridge.  

The clash ensued around 8:00am after police baton-charged over a thousand agitating workers who had kept the southern entrance to the bridge blocked since 6:00am, demanding cancellation of toll.

The blockade caused huge traffic congestions.

The workers started to throw stones and brick chips while police fired gunshots. The alleged supporters of the lessee also launched an attack with brick chips and sticks, witnesses said.

At one stage, the news of the death and injuries spread like wildfire making the workers and locals furious.

A brick-loaded truck rammed into the Ansar camp on the premises of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) office in Ikruia, said an Ansar member, Abul Kalam Azad, who was present on the spot.

The incident led to the collapse of part of a wall but caused no injury or casualty.

Chased by workers, several policemen took shelter inside a restaurant and pulled down its shutter when the workers tried to set it ablaze, witnesses and police said.

However, the fire burned only the shutter and the policemen were rescued by their colleagues with no injuries being reported.

Several vehicles, including a police car, and roadside shops were vandalised during the clash.

“I was returning to my Hasnabad's Mokampara home around 10:00am from my workplace in Ikuria,” said Billal Hossain, one of the injured.

“As I reached Hasnabad, I found 30 to 40 policemen firing gunshots. Many others were lobbing teargas shells. As I ran into an alley, a bullet hit my rib cage and I fell to the ground,” Billal told The Daily Star at DMCH.

His condition was stated to be critical.

Traffic movement resumed and normalcy returned around 12:30pm. Additional police were deployed there as tension was still prevailing, Md Shahiduzzaman, additional deputy commissioner in Dhaka, told this newspaper.

About Sohel's death, Sha Migan Shafiur Rahman, Dhaka superintendent of police, on the spot said Sohel was not killed in police shooting as policemen only fired blanks to disperse the agitators. He, however, added they would investigate further.

At least a dozen witnesses said the youth was killed in police firing.

Sohel went out of the house saying he would come back after the protest, his wife Lucky Akhter told this correspondent.  “He was fighting for workers' rights,” she said.

“The toll hike is really bad for our livelihood as it would cut their wages,” she quoted her husband as saying.

Tajul Islam, president of Bangladesh Inter District Truck Drivers' Union, told The Daily Star that hired goons of the lessee also opened fire in presence of police.

Denying the allegation, the lessee, Khorshed Alam, said none of his men was present at the scene.

After winning the bidding at Tk 21.29 crore, Alam took over the charge of toll collection from the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) on October 21.

But he had to stop collecting toll from CNG-run auto-rickshaws and motorbikes after two days amid demonstrations. He claimed he was going by the rate chart fixed by the Toll Policy-2014.

The RHD invited the tender based on the 2014 policy which was never followed before this, he said, adding the department yesterday verbally instructed him to stop all toll collection at the bridge until further notice.

Md Amanullah, superintendent engineer of Narayanganj circle of RHD, yesterday said the problem was created as the lessee started to collect toll as per the Toll Policy-2014.

The RHD started to enforce the policy and the new rate for all bridges from 2015, he added. 

Because of public demand, Amanullah noted, the road transport and bridges ministry wrote to the finance ministry proposing cancellation of the toll at Buriganga-1 bridge but the latter rejected it.

The bridge was open to traffic in 1989. The workers have been demanding scrapping of its toll since 2016, said Tajul Islam of truck drivers' association.