People of 12 out of 13 Upazilas of Kishoreganj observed a dawn-to-dusk general strike on Monday against the government move to create Bhairab as a new district encompassing five Upazilas of greater Kishoreganj district. All shops and businesses were shut down and educational establishment remained closed as disgruntled people the 12 Upazilas, irrespective of their party affiliation, enforced the day-long hartal.

People of Bhairab Upazila who have been welcoming the government move, however, did not observe the hartal. The shutdown disrupted road and rail communications along Dhaka, Mymensingh and Kishoreganj routes. Bhairab-bound Issa Khan Express was stuck at Nilganj Railway Station in Kishoreganj and Chittagong Mail halted at Sararchar Station under Bajitpur Upazila due to the general strike. Traffic on the roads were halted by barricades and burning tyres at least at 25 spots. Communication on the river routes also remained halted in Nikli and Bajitpur, witnesses said.

The government earlier planned to create the new Bhairab district with five out of 13 Kishoreganj upazilas — Bajitpur, Bhairab, Katiadi, Kuliarchar and Nikli. The residents except those of Bhairab have rallied against the division of Kishoreganj district. ‘We will continue with our movements until our demands are met,’ Miah Mohammed Ferdous, president of the group protecting the district’s integrity, told a rally at Kishoreganj District Lawyers’ Association Building. Protest processions were taken out from various spots of the district town in support of the shutdown.

The demonstrators set fire to an effigy of president Zillur Rahman in the town’s Gatail area at around 10:45am, witnesses said. Creating a new district of Bhairab was an election pledge of president Zillur Rahman who hails from the town and was elected to parliament from this constituency. Meanwhile, the people of three Upazilas — Bajitpur, Katiadi and Nikli — have been continuing their agitation for the second week to protest the inclusion of their Upazilas into the proposed Bhairab district. They demanded either the Upazilas should be kept under the administrative jurisdiction of Kishoreganj or a new administrative district should be created comprising the three upazilas. The government has in principle decided to form the new Bhairab district encompassing five Upazilas – Nikli, Bajitpur, Kuliarchar, Katiadi and Bhairab.

-New Age