A token strike for one hour until noon was observed in Sylhet city on Sunday.
Former Sylhet city mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury, also an adviser to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson, called the strike, demanding immediate development of communication system in the region, including speedy reconstruction of the Dhaka-Sylhet highway.
At the end of the strike, a brief protest rally was held at the Court Point in the city.
Representatives of different socio-cultural, professional and business organisations participated in the programme.
Most of the business establishment remained closed and public transports remained at halt in the city during the strike.
Addressing the rally, Arif alleged that the long-standing negligence in development of the roads, air and rail communications have held the people of Sylhet hostage. He said that they want to see their demands implemented within the next 15 days.
鈥業f effective steps are not taken within this period and discrimination against the people of Sylhet continues, we would be forced to go for tough
programmes and the incumbent government would be responsible for this,鈥� Arif said.
Other demands included launching of new trains and adding coaches to the trains on the Sylhet-Dhaka and Sylhet-Chattogram routes, ending black marketing of railway tickets, bringing down the airfares on the Sylhet-Dhaka route to a reasonable level and taking immediate measures to develop the internal road communication system of Sylhet.
Besides, BNP Sylhet district president Abdul Quaiyum Chowdhury in the meantime declared on Thursday to stage a 鈥榤ass sit-in and human chain鈥� programme at Humayun Rashid Square at Dakshin Surma in the city on Monday noon demanding quick completion of the renovation work on the Sylhet-Dhaka highway.
