City Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury and officials and employees of the corporation have come under attack for evicting illegal stands of microbuses and private cars for development work in Chauhatta of Sylhet city.
At that time there were clashes between transport workers and city building employees. At least 5-7 people, including councilors and policemen, were injured in the clash and several vehicles were vandalized. Police fired 16 rounds of blank shots to bring the situation under control. A worker named Faisal Ahmed Fahad was arrested with firearms from the spot.
According to eyewitnesses, Fahad rushed towards the mayor with a weapon in his hand.
As a result, traffic on Sylhet-Dhaka highway and Sylhet-Fenchuganj road was stopped. After the removal of the barricade, the traffic was reported to be normal at around 3.30 pm. Kotwali Police Station OC SM Abu Farhad of Sylhet Metropolitan Police said that the situation was brought under control after half an hour of clashes in Chauhatta.
According to City Corporation sources, 16 rounds of shotgun shells were fired to stop the clashes. The mayor got into trouble with the transport workers while trying to evict the illegal stand on February 12. Later that day, the mayor ordered to remove the car from the sidewalk and road by tying it for three days.
Earlier, meetings were also held with labor leaders. According to the decision of the meeting, microbus and car drivers were asked to park their cars at designated places. According to him, the drivers also keep the car. But the transport workers obstructed the development work on Tuesday morning as the development work started in the previously abandoned place. They started the protest by stopping the development work. Mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury went to the spot with the councilor, magistrate and concerned officials after receiving the news.
At one stage, the transport workers attacked the officials of the city corporation when he wanted to start the work of widening the road by removing the drivers' vehicles. Later, the employees of the city corporation also counter-attacked. 30-35 vehicles were vandalized during the clash. Upon receiving the news of the incident, the transport workers set up barricades on various roads including the Sylhet-Dhaka highway. This caused severe traffic jams. After about an hour and a half, the workers lifted the barricade with the intervention of the police. The microbus workers blocked the highway for about an hour.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the highway when a barricade was set up at 2:20 pm in Goalabazar. Long-distance transport passengers were affected. Chunu Mia, president of Goalabazar Bazar Microbus Workers Sub-Committee, said, "We barricade the highway on the instructions of district leaders." They took three days to leave the stand in the interest of development work.
But during this time they did not remove the stand. Transport workers removed their vehicles when workers in Sisik went to work on Wednesday morning.
But again the drivers started to park the car there. Upon receiving the news, some councilors went to the spot and the workers threw brickbats and attacked.
