Zero tolerance for police extortion on highways

Superintendent of Police of Chittagong AKM Hafiz Akter yesterday warned police personnel against extorting transport workers on Dhaka-Chittagong and Chittagong-Cox's Bazar highways.

He said he would show zero tolerance in this regard and urged transport owners and workers to report any case of extortion immediately to him. In the same breathe, the police official warned transport operators against overcharging passengers during Eid-ul-Fitr.

Hafiz Akter voiced the warnings while meeting with transport owners and workers at his office in the port city to discuss how to ease homebound people's journey on the occasion. It was decided that cargo vehicles will not operate on highways three days before and after the Eid day.

A police control room would be set up to receive complaints and address those immediately, he said.

Conveying their demands, the transport owners called for repairing potholed roads, particularly Chittagong-Cox's Bazar and Dhaka-Chittagong highways, to prevent accidents, and urged the police official to stop harassment of transport workers in the name of checking documents.

Representatives of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Federation, Sarak Paribahan Malik Group, and Prime Mover Association attended the meeting.