The distance from Rupatali bus terminal to Barisal University is one and half kilometer. War is prevailing in this one and a half kilometer.
Transport workers have been carrying sticks at the Rupatali bus terminal and students on the Barisal-Kuakata highway adjacent to the university since Saturday morning. They are protesting against each other by burning tires on the road. As a result, direct road communication of Barisal with Bhola, Patuakhali, Barguna and tourist centers Kuakata and Jhalokati, Pirojpur and Khulna districts has been cut off.
People from different destinations have fallen into extreme misery due to this. Last Tuesday afternoon, two students of Barisal University had a quarrel with the staff of BRTC counter at Rupatalistha in the city. In that trivial incident, counter staff Rafiq humiliated two students. In protest, the students immediately blocked the road and demanded Rafiq's arrest. As a result of the incident, the bus workers were accused of brutally attacking various messes of students in Rupatali area late on Tuesday night. The students blocked the Barisal-Patuakhali highway in front of the university all day on Wednesday.
After a meeting with the university administration, the students suspended the road blockade in the afternoon with a 48-hour ultimatum. However, as the demand was not met even in 48 hours, the students staged a torch procession on Friday evening. Demonstrations and blocked highways to demand the same from the start on Saturday morning taraedike Friday night when two transport workers arrested by the police on Saturday morning, transport owners and workers at the bus terminal adjacent to the road stopped denasanibara seen at the bus terminal at 1 pm at rupatali , Hundreds of workers are protesting with sticks.
Terrible situation has been created by burning tires in different places of the road. The same situation is in the university area one and a half kilometers away. Students are standing on the highway with sticks in their hands. A large number of police are deployed in both the places. For security reasons, police have stopped all traffic from one kilometer before entering the Rupatali terminal. Kawsar Hossain Shipon, general secretary of the Barisal-Patuakhali Minibus Owners' Association, said police arrested two innocent transport workers on Friday night in connection with the attack on university students. Owners and workers will not run the bus until they are released.
Sultan Mollao, general secretary of Barisal Bus and Minibus Workers Union, said the same. Union president Rafiqul Islam Manik and local Awami League activist oil trader Mamun Mia. The university authorities have filed a case against them without identifying them as accused. The students have started blocking the road again from Saturday morning as per the previous announcement in a three-point demand including re-filing of case mentioning the names of the three.
Barisal Kotwali Model Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Nurul Islam, who was present at the bus terminal in Rupatali, said the university authorities did not name any accused in the case.
Abul Bashar Rony, 25, a supervisor of MK Paribahan and a helper of South Bengal Paribahan, a resident of Rupatali residential area, were arrested on Friday night as police suspects. Firoz (24) has been arrested. The OC University said in a statement that since there was no one named in the case statement, the police could not arrest anyone as per the students' demand without investigation. He said the administration and local political leaders have taken steps to resolve the issue through discussion.
