Nonstop transport strike begins in countryAn indefinite transport strike enforced by transport owners and workers began in the country on Tuesday morning protesting for giving a bus driver life term imprisonment.

For this, long-haul bus services have also come to a halt at Dhaka's Gabtali Bus Terminal.

bdnews24.com adds, The strike has affected many and strained train and small transport services.

Though Tuesday is the first day of the strike nationwide, it started in 10 districts of Khulna on Sunday after a bus driver was jailed for life over a 2011 accident killing five, including filmmaker Tareque Masud and cinematographer Mishuk Munier.

On Monday transport union leaders met with Khulna administration officials. After the meeting it was declared that the strike was over.

But the strike resumed after a nationwide call by the Bangladesh Transport Workers Federation, when a Dhaka court sentenced a truck driver to death over an accident in Savar, which had killed a woman.

“Workers were upset when a bus driver was given a life sentence over an accident,” Bangladesh Road Transport Owners' Association Secretary General Khandker Enayet Ullah told bdnews24.com on Tuesday morning.

“We discussed on Monday and had almost resolved the issue, but later we came to know a Dhaka court awarded the death penalty to a truck driver over an accident.

“The aggrieved workers are now on an indefinite strike. We will discuss the matter with the government yet again,” said the transport sector leader.

“Transport workers have called a strike and transport is shut down nationwide,” said S Alam Transport Dhaka Region In-Charge Mohammad Monzur. “We are helpless in this situation. We are not for or against the strike.”

“This was the first time such a conviction has occurred, so workers are angry,” he said. “It is essential that this situation is resolved through dialogue.”