Long-distance bus services resume from Sayedabad, thin presence of passengers

Bus services from Dhaka's Sayedabad Bus Terminal to other parts of the country resumed with a thin presence of passengers this morning.

Md Kalsar, a staffer of Dola Paribahan's bus counter at the terminal, told The Daily Star around 12:30pm that at least eight to nine buses had left the capital on different long-distance routes -- Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Barishal, and Dhaka-Khulna.

Md Sohrab, counter master of the terminal's Unique Paribahan bus service, said at least 10 to 12 buses departed Dhaka for different districts from around 8:00am till noon today.

"The pressure of passengers is low. However, we are not operating all of our buses on the routes," he said.

The bus services across the country came to a halt from Thursday following the "complete shutdown" enforced by the quota reform protesters.

The movement turned violent after agitating students were attacked allegedly by Chhatra League and other ruling party activists at Dhaka University and some other universities on July 15.

Read more

7-hour curfew break in Dhaka, 3 other districts

According to The Daily Star's count, at least 150 people have been killed and several thousand wounded in clashes with law enforcers, joined in by alleged ruling party activists since July 16.

The death toll may rise, as this newspaper could not contact many hospitals where dozens of critically injured were taken. Also, many families reportedly took the bodies of their loved-ones from the scene, and The Daily Star could not contact them. The Daily Star's count is based solely on hospital and police sources.

The violence also saw dozens of public and private establishments vandalised, burned or both. Scores of vehicles were also attacked and burned.