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Bangladesh Port City Paralyzed Again by Opposition Shutdown
Chittagong, the Second largest city and the largest port of Bangladesh, was crippled Sunday for the second time in a week by shutdown enforced by Jamaat-Islami backed Islami Samaj Kalyan Parishad (Islami Social Welfare Committee --ISKP) ignoring appeals by business leaders and port authorities.
The cargo handling in the port, which handles 80 percent of the country's export-import trade, came to halt as there was no traffic movement in the Chittagong town, about 264 kilometers southeast of Dhaka.
"Now 35 ships are waiting for loading and unloading of cargo in the port," Kazi Abdul Momen, Terminal Manager of the port, told Xinhua by telephone Sunday.
"The port has been paralyzed this morning by the opposition shutdown as there is no transport movement in the city," Momen said.
The Islami Samaj Kalyan Parishad (ISKP) had called the 48-hour shutdown in Chittagong city to force the government to release its four activists, who were arrested in November last year during a clash with police over holding of an Islamic gathering in the city on November 10.
Meanwhile, Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry leaders had discussion with Jamaat leaders for the past two days to convince ISKP to withdraw the work stoppage, chamber sources said.
The Chittagong port authority earlier requested the callers of work stoppage to keep the largest port out of the purview of the shutdown.
The shippers said they had on average to count an extra 5,000 dollars loss every day in operational costs for each stranded ship.
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