Transport workers, SCC, police clash
Sylhet city's Chowhatta and Dargah Gate areas witnessed violence for an hour yesterday, as transport workers clashed with police and Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) workers, following an attempt to evict an illegal microbus stand.
Following the clash that started at around 1pm, the transport workers barricaded Dhaka-Sylhet and Sylhet-Sunamganj highways for hours. The barricades were removed around 4:30pm, after a discussion with the transport workers.
For decades, footpaths and roadsides of Chowhatta-Amberkhana road have been occupied by microbuses and cars. Recently, SCC started eviction drives against all illegal stands for development work.
However, the transport workers refused to move.
Yesterday morning, the transport workers stopped development work of the road, and an hour later, SCC Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury reached the spot to discuss the matter.
During discussion, transport workers locked into an altercation with the mayor and started throwing stones and bricks at SCC officials and workers.
The mayor narrowly escaped the attack.
A while after the attack, SCC workers clashed with transport workers, and police got involved to control the situation.
Visiting the place after the clash, this correspondent found 12 vehicles vandalised, while police removed many already.
SCC claimed that at least eight persons -- including a councillor, officials, staff and workers -- were injured in the clash. However, the number of injured transport workers could not be confirmed.
Meanwhile, a Swecchasebak League leader, Foysol Ahmed Fahad, also Liberation War affairs secretary of Sylhet city unit, was arrested from the spot with a firearm and three bullet shells.
Although SCC officials claimed that he was there on behalf of the transport workers. Fahad is known as a close acquaintance of Sylhet City Councillor Aftab Ahmed, who went there with the mayor.
While talking to several workers of Chowhatta microbus stand, they said that they have been at the stand for decades, and the mayor wants to remove them without any alternative arrangement.
Abdul Muhit, general secretary of Sylhet Zilla Sarak Paribahan Sramik Union, said, "Our workers were attacked, and our vehicles were vandalised in the name of the eviction drive. We are now planning for a transport strike to protest the corporation's action."
Faisal Mahmud, deputy commissioner (traffic) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said, "According to the road transport law, we are bound to remove all obstacles of roads, and the microbus stand is such an obstacle. As SCC's development work on the road started, authorities wanted the stand to be evicted, and we were there to stand by the eviction. But the transport workers started the clash."
Mayor Ariful said, "We wanted to remove the stand for development and betterment of the city, but the transport workers attacked us. We were luckily saved, as police intervened. We strongly condemn such an attack on SCC and assure that such eviction drives will continue anyway."
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