Hartal dampens festival mood

The festivity of Eid-ul-Fitr is likely to be marred this year because of political instability as Jamaat has called two-day countrywide shutdown immediately after the Muslims' biggest festival.
Thousands of city dwellers plan to celebrate their eid holidays with their near and dear ones at village homes every year. This time many are considering backtracking on their decisions and cancel their village trips.
The holidaymakers are naturally fed up with politics as, according to them, unhealthy political culture prevails in Bangladesh. Their sufferings caused by political unrest have now created additional anger and hatred among them.
Jamaat-e-Islami, a key ally of the BNP-led opposition, on Thursday called hartal for August 12-13 soon after the High Court declared illegal the party's registration with the Election Commission.
The Eid holidays may end on August 11 subject to sighting of the moon.
“In other countries, politicians do politics for the welfare of the people. But in our country, they [politicians] do politics to amass money and make us suffer," said Mashiur Rahman, an employee of a private microfinance company.
Rahman, who was talking to this correspondent at Gabtoli bus terminal, went there to return his ticket after deciding to cancel his eid plans.
"As per the constitution, people are the source of all power in Bangladesh. But in reality, we are neglected and deprived everywhere. Who has given the politicians the right to make us suffer?" said Shakil Mahmood.
"I have bought a ticket for August 8 to go to my village in Bogra. Now I have to look for a return ticket for August 11. If I cannot mange it, I will have to cancel my trip," said Mahmood while standing at Kalyanpur counter of Shyamoli bus service.
Bus operators are also facing troubles as they have to refund tickets or change their schedules.
"We have no alternative to stopping operation on hartal days. We have kept two options for our valued passengers. They can either take back the money or change the travel date on condition of availability of tickets," said Faruk Talukder Sohel, managing director of Sohag Paribahan.
As road communications will be snapped during hartal days, there will be huge pressure on train and launch services.
Sardar Shahdat Ali, divisional manager of Bangladesh Railways, said, "We will be able to carry around 60-65 thousand passengers daily before and after three days of eid. It will be a problem if the number of passengers rises."
Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Bir Bikram, chairman, Bangladesh Inland Waterways [passenger carriers'] Association, told The Daily Star they would operate around 135 launches daily with a capacity of carrying around 1 lakh passengers.