BNP-led 18-party alliance organised a mass procession in the capital yesterday creating huge traffic gridlocks. The photo was taken from Mouchak foot over bridge.Photo: STAR

A mass procession of the BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance protesting "the government's misrule, corruption and public sufferings" created huge traffic gridlocks in the capital yesterday.
The procession, starting from BNP's Naya Paltan headquarters around 4:00pm and ending at Moghbazar intersection, left vehicular movement along the route in a virtual standstill from around 3:00pm to 5:30pm.
City dwellers suffered immensely as areas including Rampura, Mohakhali, Malibagh, Bijoynagar and Paltan and Matsha Bhaban intersections were also affected.
Hundreds of people were seen waiting for hours at bus stops. Whenever a bus came, they started jostling to get in. "I have been trying to catch a bus to my home in Mirpur for around two hours. But it seems I have to walk home," said one Imran Hossain at the Farmgate bus stop.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir activists were also present in the procession, demanding release of their top leaders detained over war crimes charges.
About Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's accusation on Sunday that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia played a double role by “biting like a snake and then coming to cure as a quack” in relation to the recent attacks on Buddhists in Cox's Bazar, BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday said it was the government which was playing the double role.