Of checkpoints and sufferings

Police intensified frisking of people entering the capital from their checkpoints at different gateways of Dhaka ahead of BNP's scheduled rally on Saturday.

Law enforcers said they checked visitors' identity, luggage, and vehicles -- especially passengers of buses and motorcycle riders at the checkpoints at Gabtoli, Tongi, Narayangaj and Saidabad -- as part of stepping up their security measures.

This newspaper found that law enforcers were asking the passengers questions about where they were headed, their purpose and others.

Nayapaltan was closed the entire day, barricaded by policemen. The barricades were removed after 8:00pm yesterday. Photo: Amran Hossain

Police at Gabtoli said they are frisking people as part of their routine activities.

On-duty police at Narayanganj and Gazipur Metropolitan Police Commissioner Molla Nazrul Islam said they were checking people to prevent any kind of untoward incident.

Police stopped almost all types of Dhaka-bound vehicles, including hundreds of motorbikes, buses, and private cars, at the Gabtoli bus terminal.

Mirpur-bound Mohammad Aziz, a tiles trader, said police checked him twice at Aminbazar and Gabtoli.

Shariful Islam, a resident of Tangail's Mirzapur, said he was travelling on a bus to go to a job interview in Motijheel. He was asked to get down from the bus at Gabtoli and was interrogated for five minutes.

"Police also searched my phone to verify if I was going for an interview," he said.

Photo: Prabir Das

Darussalam Police Inspector (Operations) Asaduzzaman said it's a part of regular activity. However, considering the overall situation in the country, they need to impose stricter security, he added.

In Dhaka's Abdullahpur area, police stopped vehicles mostly motorcycles.

Jatrabari-bound Zahid Hasan said police stopped his motorbike and started searching without any explanation.

"They took eight minutes of my time but did not find anything. I might be late for work," he said.

Police checked Dhaka-bound passengers at three points -- Chowrasta, Kutubkhali and Signboard -- in Jatrabari area, similar to other gateways of the capital.

Police also checked Dhaka-bound vehicles at the Mouchak intersection, the east side of Narayanganj's Kachpur bridge and different places in the Gazipur district and city corporation.

Meanwhile, plying of buses to and from Dhaka was comparatively less than usual, said staffers of different bus companies at Saidabad, Tongi, Gabtoli and other places.

At Saidabad, Hanif Paribahan's lineman Nazrul Islam said eight trips of the Sylhet-Moulvibazar route have been cancelled due to a passenger crisis.

Photo: Prabir Das

Meanwhile, the number of buses operating inside the capital was relatively low yesterday. Many passengers were seen waiting at different bus stoppages.

Elderlies, women, children, HSC candidates and their guardians were the worst sufferers of the lack of public transport.

Mahbubur Rahman, organising secretary of Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association, said many bus owners have refrained from plying buses in fear of violence following the clash between BNP activists and police on Wednesday.

Dhaka Road Transport Owners Association in a statement yesterday afternoon assured that the movement of public transport in Dhaka and inter-district routes will be normal on December 10.

The association requested the authorities to strengthen security measures in the capital's important points to ensure the smooth movement of vehicles.