City dwellers have been suffering as all operations at Nagar Bhaban, the headquarters of the Dhaka South City Corporation, and other zonal offices remained suspended for the ninth consecutive day on Sunday, with Ishraque鈥檚 supporters demanding his swearing-in as the city mayor.聽
They have kept all services suspended since May 15, despite the BNP leader postponing the week-long protest and issuing a 48-hour ultimatum on the afternoon of May 22.
鈥榃e will keep the offices closed until Ishraque is sworn in as the city mayor,鈥� said Md Monir Hossain, general secretary of the DSCC Sramik Karmachari Trade Union.
He said that people were suffering because of the government鈥檚 delay in this regard.
Meanwhile, service seekers who visited the DSCC offices to avail essential civic services, including holding tax, trade licences, and death and birth certificates, had to return without receiving assistance.
Shahida Akter, a resident of Bangsal who had come to Nagar Bhaban on Saturday for a succession certificate, was seen sitting outside the building, tired, on Sunday. She said that she had come earlier as well but could not complete her work due to the halt.
Another resident of Sutrapur, Narayan Shah, also had to return without being able to pay for his trade licence.
The protest, begun on May 14, intensified as聽 several hundred supporters of Ishraque began to block major city roads, including those near Nagar Bhaban, Matsya Bhaban, and Kakrail Mosque, on May 21 morning.
They later gathered on the Kakrail Mosque Road to continue their overnight sit-in protest, which then spread to Matsya Bhaban and continued until the protest was postponed on May 22 afternoon, hours after a High Court ruling clearing his way for taking oath as the city mayor.
Ishraque postponed the protests giving a 48-hour ultimatum to observe the government鈥檚 action regarding the High Court order.
Ishraque and his supporters also demanded the resignation of local government, rural development and cooperatives affairs adviser Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain and information and broadcasting affairs adviser Md Mahfuj Alam for their alleged involvement with the newly formed political party, National Citizen Party, saying that the demand will remain unchanged despite the protest being postponed.
The High Court summarily rejected the writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer and DSCC resident Mamunur Rashid challenging a lower court鈥檚 March 27 verdict directing the government to issue a gazette within 10 days replacing Awami League leader Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh with Ishraque as the DSCC mayor.
The interim government declared the mayoral office vacant and appointed a bureaucrat as administrator on August 19, 2024, two weeks after it assumed power following a mass uprising that ousted the Awami League regime on August 5, 2024.
