Shaheen Mollah

People going to their hometowns from Dhaka to spend Eid suffered immensely due to shortage of buses, long tailbacks on the highways and delayed trains.

After seeing a scarcity of customers, Dhaka’s cattle markets have started gaining momentum after Juma prayers yesterday, as a huge number of buyers rushed to the markets.

People heading for northern districts to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha in their village yesterday faced suffering for want of vehicles, overcharging and traffic congestion on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway.

Dhaka’s cattle markets have not yet seen the expected momentum, just two days before Eid.

Although a good number of sacrificial animals have arrived at Dhaka’s cattle markets, customers were sparse yesterday, the first day of official operation of 20 markets.

“Children miss their father every day,” said the wife of officer-in-charge of Banani Police Station Salauddin, who was killed during the Holey Artisan attack this day in the capital six years ago.

Just a week before Eid-ul-Fitr, a businessman, who has shops at the capital’s AGB colony kitchen market, received a call from an internet-generated number.

At least 100 people were burnt, and of them, 67 were being treated after the BM container depot fire in Chattogram. Due to the limited capacity in Chattogram, patients with serious injuries needed to be shifted to Dhaka through emergency helicopters.

They are the ones who run towards danger when others run from it. Be it a fire, explosion, road accident, landslide, launch capsize or other natural or manmade calamities, these first responders rush to the spot selflessly.

The prices of fine rice have gone up in the capital’s wholesale and retail markets, aggravating the suffering of the people from middle-income families who are already struggling to meet their household expenses due to spiraling prices of essentials, including edible oil and lentil.

All central prisons across Bangladesh will hold Eid jamaat (congregations) on a large scale this year. Large congregations were prohibited in prisons for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to prison sources.

Heated arguments and brawls between the shopkeepers of New Market area and Dhaka College students are nothing new. Over the years, the city dwellers suffered their share when both the parties locked into running battles and violent clashes -- most of the time over trivial matters.

For years, slum dwellers have been making a living by operating boats on the lake connecting Karail slum and Gulshan-1. However, these days, they are having an extremely hard time continuing their profession, due to the immense pressure from local extortionists. The boatmen allege that thugs attack them as they are unable to pay the demanded extortion money.

The retail prices of non-bottled and bottled soybean and palm oil have gone up by Tk 10-15 per litre overnight due to a supply crunch in the aftermath of Indonesia’s export ban on crude and refined palm oil imposed on Wednesday.

Justice may remain elusive for Mitu Akter, wife of shopkeeper Morsalin, who died early yesterday from the head injuries he suffered during the New Market clashes on Tuesday. But her main worry now is how to survive with her two children.

It was when they unclothed Nahid Hossain’s dead body for post mortem examination that the morgue staff realised how horrifyingly he had been beaten to death by the sparring Dhaka College students and the New Market shopkeepers.

The rising prices of essentials ahead of Ramadan has dealt a fresh blow to the people with limited income.

It takes Anwar Hossain, a 60-year-old cook at a mess in the capital’s Farmgate, about an hour to make a trip to the nearest deep tube-well, get 10 litres of water, and return home.

Nasima Begum, in the advanced stages of pregnancy and carrying her two-year-old, was waiting for over two hours at the designated point in the capital’s Kazipara Bus Stand for a TCB truck to arrive with daily essentials.

Even though the government on Monday partially removing VAT on edible oils, consumers have yet to get any relief as traders have not reduced prices as of yesterday.