Trains canceled across Bangladesh as rail union goes on strike

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Trains were canceled across Bangladesh on Tuesday as railway staff went on strike for higher pensions and other benefits, affecting tens of thousands of passengers and freight transport.

Saidur Rahman, acting president of the Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Workers Union, said the strike was called after a meeting with the interim government headed by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus failed to reach a deal late Monday.

Rahman said the strike would continue indefinitely if the government does not accept their demands.

The state-run railway system carries some 65 million passengers per year in the densely populated nation of 170 million people. It employs about 25,000 people and operates a network of over 36,000 kilometers (22,000 miles).

The main Kamlapur Railway Station in the capital, Dhaka, was mobbed by hundreds of disappointed passengers who were not aware of the strike. Many waited for hours before going home.

As the country’s railway adviser visited, passengers shouted complaints.

Fouzul Kabir Khan, the country’s railway affairs adviser, told reporters that such a nationwide strike was “regrettable” and he urged the protesters to end the strike.

He said that “doors for discussion” were open to resolve the standoff.

Shahadat Hossain, a station manager in Dhaka, said at least 10 trains were scheduled to leave the station on Tuesday morning. Authorities arranged buses as an alternative, but they were not enough to meet demand.

Mohammed Nadim was stranded at the Kamlapur Railway Station as he travelled hundreds of kilometers overnight to reach Dhaka for his vacation to the southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar.

“I came here in at 5:30 a.m. from outside Dhaka. But after one hour or so, I came to know that my train will not run. Now I have been stranded here for hours without any hope. The station officials told me my ticket money will be reimbursed, but I don’t know when,” he told The Associated Press at the scene.

He refused to travel to his destination by a bus as arranged by the authorities as an alternative.

“It’s too far. I have come here to travel by train. I don’t want to travel this far by an air-conditioned bus even. Now they are offering me this bus that has no air-condition,” he said.

Dhaka-based Jamuna TV station reported that railway workers protested in Chattogram, the country’s second largest city. The southeastern city has the country’s largest seaport, and the massive garment industry relies on trains to bring goods to it for export. The industry earns about $38 billion a year from exports, mainly to the United States and the European Union.

In the northwestern region of Rajshahi, angry passengers smashed furniture of a station and attacked a staff, according to Jamuna TV.

The Yunus-led interim government has been running the country since August, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India amid a student-led uprising and ended her 15-year rule. The interim administration is struggling to restore order amid reports by the global lending agencies such as the World Bank or the Asian Development Bank of slower economic growth.

Julhas Alam, The Associated Press