Dhaka: BNP on Friday alleged that bus owners and workers suspended their long-haul bus services at the behest of ministers amid the student movement seeking safe roads.

‘The public transport services have been stopped at the directives of ministers to sidetrack the students’ justified demands,’ said party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, reports the UNB.

He came up with the allegation while speaking at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

Bus owners stopped operating long-route buses in different districts on Friday morning protesting ‘vandalism’ during the ongoing demonstrations of students demanding justice for their two fellows killed in a road crash in the capital.

Rizvi said Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said the transport owners are not operating their bus services on security grounds, but the students were not seen obstructing vehicles anywhere during their agitation. 

He said students are checking licenses of drivers and vehicles, and helping them ply vehicles in a disciplined way.

‘We’ve seen the driver of a minster has no driving licence, MPs’ and law enforcers’ vehicles have no valid papers, and their drivers have no driving licences either. It’s shameful for the nation,’ the BNP leader observed.

Referring to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan’s remark that there might be ‘acts of sabotage’ anytime in the student movement, Rizvi said it is an indication of subversive acts to be carried out ‘by the government as it did so’ in the past during democratic movements.

The Home Minister on Thursday urged the agitating students to leave the streets and return to their educational institutions and homes as he fears there might be ‘acts of sabotage’ anytime.

Rizvi alleged that police and ruling party men carried out attacks on students in different areas of the city, including Mirpur.

He demanded the government take steps to stop attack and repression on the demonstrating students.

 Speaking at another programme, BNP vice chairman Abdullah Al Noman demanded the President promulgate an ordinance to ensure safe roads.

‘If the government accepts the students’ nine-point demand, it can take steps to promulgate an ordinance by the President,’ he told a human chain programme.

Bangladesh Jatiya Manabadhikar Parishad arranged the programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club.

Noman said the Home Minister might have issued a threat to students asking them to return to their homes. ‘I think the government should take the right decision to resolve the problem peacefully, instated of giving students threat.’