People suffered immensely as Sylhet district was practically isolated from the rest of the country on Friday with the suspension of bus and other road transport services in Sylhet division ahead of the mass rally of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party today in Sylhet city today.

Despite the strikes and other forms of intimidation, the rally venue, government Alia Madrassah ground, has become crowded with several thousand BNP activists who have arrived from far-flung areas of the division’s four districts since Thursday.

Sufferings of people were heightened as devotees had come to join a two-day-long Ijtema hosted by Anjumane Hefajat-e Islam Bangladesh in Sylhet city which concluded on Friday.

Local transport owners enforced transport strikes in Moulvibazar and Sunamganj districts of the division for two days from Friday protesting at what they said the movement of unauthorised three-wheelers on highways.

Another transport strike for an indefinite period started in Habiganj district, also from Friday, in protest of the ‘harassment by the local administration’. Besides, a one-day transport strike was called in Sylhet district for today.

 Due to the strikes, buses and other public transports to and from Sylhet have stopped operating since Friday.

BNP activists, intending to join the rally, were seen coming to the city by cars, rickshaws, auto-rickshaws and on foot and camping at the rally venue and staying at other places.

Sylhet city mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury, also a BNP executive committee member, told New Age on Friday noon that not only their party leaders and activists, common people from different parts of the division also continued to come in droves defying the obstacles to attend today’s rally.

‘You will see that Sylhet city would turn into a sea of masses by Friday night,’ Arif said, adding that all obstacles, including the transport strikes, to prevent people from attending the rally would go in vein.

The BNP is set to hold a mass rally in Sylhet today, the seventh of the divisional events it has been arranging since October, to press home its several demands, including the resignation of the Awami League government and the release of its chair, Khaleda Zia.

The BNP on September 28 announced its 10 divisional rallies during the next two months as part of its ongoing movement.

The BNP so far held divisional rallies in Chattogram on October 12, in Mymensingh on October 15, in Khulna on October 22, in Rangpur on October 29, in Barishal on November 5 and in Faridpur (an organisational division of the party) on November 12 amid arrests, intimidation and various other obstacles, mainly transport strikes, in the divisions concerned.

Sylhet district was practically cut off from the rest of the division as well as the country as the long-route buses in the division have gone off the rods since early Friday morning while Sylhet district bus owners have decided to enforce a transport strike today, the day of the rally in Sylhet city.

Bus owners said that the intercity buses could not go for their destinations, including the capital city of Dhaka and the port city of Chattogram, from the Central Bus Terminal in Sylhet since early in Friday morning.

Except a few buses that run on different regional routes, the long-route buses did not leave the Central Bus Terminal at Dakshin Surma in the city while buses from other cities in the country could not reach Sylhet city, they said.

Sylhet District Bus Owners Association general secretary Ziaul Kabir Polash told New Age that intercity buses to and from Sylhet remained suspended due to the strikes.

Polash said that their strike would begin on Saturday at 6:00am, claiming that it has no link to the BNP’s divisional rally.

Meanwhile, a festive mood has been pervading the Sylhet Alia Madrassah ground since Friday afternoon with the presence of hundreds of leaders, activists and supporters there.

Many of them reached the rally venue on Thursday to avoid the alleged government obstacles, including the transport strikes and intimidation, BNP’s grassroots leaders and activists said.

The inner part of the madrassah ground, the largest open space in the city, was almost packed to brim by Friday afternoon, they said.

Party leaders and activists were herd on Friday afternoon at the venue chanting slogans frequently against the government and demanding release of the BNP chair.

Supporters of specific party leaders were also seen bringing out processions from the rally venue wearing colourful T-shirts and carrying banners and posters.

Activists of the BNP and its front and associate organisations, who have reached earlier, were rendering songs in groups at different makeshift tents at the venue.   

‘I boarded a Sylhet-bound passenger bus last night without thinking anything else immediately after hearing the news of the two-day transport strike from Friday. I felt an overwhelming desire to attend the rally,’ Rashidul Islam, who came from Habiganj, told New Age while his fellow Shamsul Alam from Sunamganj also almost echoed Rashidul.

Sylhet district BNP president Abdul Kaiyum Chowdhury told New Age that they made st staying and offering foods to the y staying and offering foods to the nd food arrangements for party leaders and activists who have arrived early.

‘Apart from setting up more than 20 tents, preparation of food has been going on since Thursday afternoon for them on the programme venue,’ Kaiyum said.

Sylhet mayor Ariful Haque Chowdhury said that all kinds of preparation for the rally were completed.

BNP organising secretary for Sylhet division Shakhawat Hossain Jiban said that a festive mood was prevailing in the entire Sylhet region centring the rally. 

‘People are excited to attend the mass rally,’ he claimed.

The BNP leader further told New Age that party activists from different upazilas of Sunamganj, which is a part of the haor belt, started their journey for the rally in more than 100 engine boats on Thursday and they had begun to reach Sylhet city since Friday afternoon.