Cattle traders face extortions on highways [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Cattle traders face extortions on highways

Local September 23, 2015

Several cattle traders from different corners of the country said Tuesday that they suffered extortions on the highways while bringing sacrificial animals to the capital’s cattle markets by trucks.
Reports from Feni said that the local leaders of ruling Awami League opened a cattle market on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway at Feni.
The cattle market there extends up to the local Mohammad Ali Market.
Cattle traders from Kushtia, Jhenaidah and Meherpur who brought their supplies to the capital said that they had to pay to the extortionists at least at five times on their way. Each time, they said, they had to pay between Tk 200 and Tk 500 per truck load of cattle.
They said that they left the payments to the truck drivers.
The payments were received by groups who identified themselves as leaders of workers’ unions, they said.
At times the extortions took place with the policemen standing at nearby points but looking the other way, said the traders.
They said that at the Daulatdia Ferry Ghat the extortionists were the linemen who decides the serializes the trucks and other vehicles allowed to board the ferries on way to the capital.
Jamil Hakim and three other traders, who brought 15 cows from Harinakundu, Jhenaidah to Uttar Shahjahanpur in the early hours of Tuesday said they had to pay the total amount of Tk 1450 at five points on their way to the capital.
Shahadot Hossain, one of the four traders, said they faced extortions at Jhenaidah, Magura, Faridpur, Manikganj and Savar and at Manikganj policemen were standing not far away when the extortions took place.
Mizanur Rahman and two other fellow traders from Bheramara, Kushtia narrated a similar story while bringing 18 cows to Balur Math cattle market in the capital in the early hours of Monday.
They said they too had to pay the linemen at Daulatdia Ferry Ghat.
Deputy Inspector General of highway police Mallick Faqrul Islam said that they heard no such complaints from any quarter until Tuesday evening.
He said that he requested truck owners association leaders at a meeting to informed him immediately if trucks were stopped on the highways by the extortionists.
Action will be taken if anyone including the police or union leaders were found involved in extortion, he said.
Our Correspondent in Feni reported that a cattle market had been opened on an incomplete section of the four lane Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, up to the Mohammad Ali market.
Bus and truck drivers passing by the point said that on Sunday they had to stop their vehicles to avoid accidents as the sellers and the buyers frequently crossed the highway with their animals.
The cattle market would sit on Wednesday too, according to the sellers.
The police said there was nothing much they can do as the cattle market was being run by local influential leaders.
Local Juba League leader Mohammad Ilias, who took the cattle market on lease said that the traders were using the incomplete section of the four-lane highway for their business.