Mortuary vehicle gets trapped for hours as student block road in Bogura

Relatives of a deceased person set out for home after an autopsy on Monday afternoon but became trapped in a student blockade on the Dhaka–Bogura highway, leaving the body-carrying ambulance stranded for hours.

A relative told reporters that they left Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogura around noon and had scheduled the funeral for 2pm, but were stuck for more than two hours in the Banani area due to the blockade.

Transport workers also faced severe difficulties. Rezuan, a van driver transporting rods from Khandar to Jalshuka in Shajahanpur upazila, said he had been stuck on the road for more than two and a half hours.

He said there was no effective government action to stop road chaos and that the country cannot function like this.

Students of Bogura Polytechnic Institute began blocking the Dhaka–Bogura highway at Banani Betgari area from 11am on Tuesday, February 3, to press their demands. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the highway.

As the blockade continued, public frustration intensified, leading to verbal clashes between protesters and pedestrians, passengers and transport workers.

Law enforcement agencies and army personnel arrived at the scene and instructed protesters to clear the road within 15 minutes. The students withdrew the blockade around 2pm and returned to campus, but traffic did not fully normalise until 4pm.

Passengers said they had been stuck for two to more than three hours, suffering extreme hardship.

They said such actions cannot be accepted in any country and questioned the absence of government control, adding that protesters should pursue their demands within their institutions.

The protesting students said allowing general BSc degree holders to enter 10th grade government jobs is discriminatory, despite diploma engineers completing longer and more practical training. They warned of tougher protests if the policy is not withdrawn.