C&F agents' strike ends at Ctg custom house

The clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents of Chittagong Custom House withdrew their strike at 5pm, which they started at 9am today morning to press home their six-point demands.

They started gathering at the main gate of the custom house today morning demanding withdrawal of licence suspension of an agent and over thousands of C&F agents started demonstrating at the main gate of the building.

"We suspended the licence of Prime Clearing Houses yesterday, when the owner of the agent misbehaved and hit a customs official," M Fakhrul Alam, commissioner of Chattogram Custom House, told The Daily Star.

The Chittagong Custom House C&F Agents Association added new demands and continued their protest although the customs authority withdrew the suspension order at 12pm today, Alam said.

"Nizam Uddin, a revenue officer of the 8-B duty branch, yesterday behaved badly with a owner of Prime Clearing Houses, for not paying bribes," said Obaidul Haque Alamgir, customs secretary of the C&F agents' association.

"So, we gathered here today demanding withdrawal of the suspension."

The leaders of the association and the officials of the custom house sat for a meeting at 4pm to find a solution to all the issues.

At 5pm, they cancelled their strike and started working after the end of the meeting.