Online Desk  :    Bus services on the Barishal-Kuakata and Barishal-Jhalakathi routes resumed after three hours of strike as Barishal District Bus Owners and Workers Solidarity Council withdrew their protest on Wednesday afternoon. The bus services from Barishal to other parts of the country remain suspended due to the strike called by the Barishal District Bus Mini Bus Owners’ Association on Wednesday morning.  A woker of Rupatali Bus Workers Union said that they withdrew the strike after holding a meeting between the leaders of the union and the students.

A bus staff locked into an altercation with a female student of Government Brojomohun College in Barishal over half-fare payment when she wanted to travel from Barishal to Jhalakathi on Tuesday afternoon. Being informed, the BM College students rushed to the Rupatali Bus Terminal in Barishal and got locked into chase and counter-chase with the bus workers. At one stage, the students allegedly vandalised an office of bus workers, several buses and torched those. Some people from both ends were injured in the clashes on Tuesday afternoon. At night, the transport workers at the Barishal Rupatli Bus Terminal called for the indefinite strike, protesting the mayhem. Barishal Bus Owners’ Group General Secretary Engineer Anowar Hossain attributed the lack of security for keeping bus service off.