Dismissed officials and those made officers-on-special-duty of Islami Bank Bangladesh on Saturday blocked the Dhaka-Chattogram highway at Faujdarhat in Sitakunda upazila of Chattogram, demanding reinstatement, withdrawal of OSD orders and the cancellation of conditional assessment tests.
The blockade that began at about 11:30am brought traffic on the country鈥檚 busiest highway to a halt for one and a half hours, causing a 10-kilometre-long tailback from City Gate to Madam Bibir Haat.
The demonstrators left the road at around 1:00pm following police intervention.
More than a thousand people took part in the protest, which initially began as a sit-in on the road verge before moving onto the highway and blocking it, causing passengers and transport workers serious suffering.
Chattogram Bara Aulia Highway police officer-in-charge Abdul Momin said, 鈥楾he protesters withdrew at about 1:00pm after we had assured them that we would convey their demands to the authorities concerned.鈥�
The demonstrators alleged that nearly 400 officials in the Chattogram region had been terminated and another 4,000鈥�5,000 were made officers-on-special-duty, in short OSD, leaving them in hardship and uncertainty.
Saifullah Bin Yousuf, who said he was an officer and got the dismissal from the bank, stated, 鈥榃e came to the street to show how helpless 5,500 officers and employees have become. Through this peaceful programme we want to draw the attention of the chief adviser and others to resolve the crisis.鈥�
Another dismissed officer, Khalid Hossain, said, 鈥極ur salary accounts have been blocked. We cannot withdraw our dues, even to meet daily household expenses.鈥�
Earlier on Friday, a group of dismissed and OSD officials of Islami Bank at a press conference announced that they would go for continuous work abstention from Sunday.
Their fresh agitation started on Saturday morning with a human chain and highway blockade.
Islami Bank officials said that after S Alam鈥檚 takeover, 7,224 people were recruited from Chattogram, more than 4,500 of them from Potiya, the hometown of S Alam Group chairman Saiful Alam. Recruitment bypassed competitive job exams and public advertisements, with r茅sum茅s collected through drop boxes at Alam鈥檚 residence and office.
As a result, the bank鈥檚 manpower rose to around 22,000 in recent years.
Following the fall of the Awami League regime on August 5 last year, Islami Bank came out of the control of S Alam Group, and on September 27 this year, the bank arranged a competency assessment for 5,385 officers through the Dhaka University鈥檚 Institute of Business Administration.
On September 27, however, only 414 officials appeared to take the examination.
The remaining 4,971 were made OSD from the following day, alleged dismissed official Saifullah Bin Yousuf who is one of the organisers of the protesting group.
Of these 4,971, about 400 officials were dismissed in two phases on charges of opposing the test and spreading confusion.
The dismissed bank staff alleged that the 鈥榮pecial assessment鈥� was part of a plan to remove several thousand employees from their jobs.
