Air passengers suffer for three-day hartal

Some of the several hundred air passengers, who had passed days and nights at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital due to the three-day shutdown, which ended yesterday. Photo: Star

The three-day countrywide shutdown enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP has caused immense suffering to the air passengers to and from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital.
Several hundred of incoming passengers and many relatives who came to receive them got stranded in the airport for days and spent nights there.
Many even passed long hours with little or almost no food due to high price of food at the airport. Some said they could not sleep at night for mosquitoes in the terminal building.
A number of people risked going home or to relatives' houses in the capital or its surrounding districts, while many others opted to stay at hotels near the airport, passengers said.
Those who departed the airport had to pay double the usual taxi fare.
Abdul Wahab of a taxicab service at the airport admitted that they carried some passengers outside the capital and charged almost double the fare for hartal risk.
Zakir Hossain, 25, who hails from Trishal, Mymensingh, said, “My relatives informed me about the hartal, but I had no option but to travel as my ticket was reconfirmed by then.”
He said he landed at the airport from Malaysia at 10:30am on Monday and had been stuck there since then.
The victim said he thought of travelling by rail but did not dare it for reports of arson on trains at different places. So he stayed up the night at the airport along with over 200 others.
The two-day hartal by Jamaat, followed by a one-day hartal by BNP, made a lot more air passengers and their stranded relatives suffer.
Mohammad Mohsin, who arrived from Dubai around 12:00pm yesterday, said, “My wife and a niece came to receive me from my village home in Narsingdhi Monday and had stayed at the airport till then.”