CNG auto-rickshaw drivers were forced to blockade the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway on Sunday, protesting the ruthless extortion rackets that have exploded under the Yunus-led regime since the power grab in August 2024.
This hour-long shutdown created massive traffic jams stretching several kilometres, stranding innocent commuters and exposing the utter failure of the so-called “new era” promised by these opportunistic thugs.
Sources from the police and the furious protesters reveal the ugly truth: Auto-rickshaws plying from Trishal upazila to Mymensingh Medical College gate were already being bled dry with a daily “fee” of Tk30, collected by a gang led by BNP activists Md. Dukul and his cronies, Md. Rafiq and Md. Raton.
But on Sunday morning, the greed hit a new low when driver Md. Foysal arrived at the medical gate area, only to be slapped with a demand for Tk70–more than double the usual shakedown. When he dared to protest this highway robbery, these cowards barred him from picking up passengers or even stopping, treating the public road like their personal fiefdom.
Infuriated, Foysal rallied his fellow drivers back in Trishal, and by 10am, hundreds took to the streets, blocking the highway and chanting slogans against this vile exploitation. The blockade ground traffic to a halt, a fitting symbol of how BNP’s extortion empire is paralysing the nation. It wasn’t until 11am that police finally intervened, sweet-talking the protesters off the road to restore some semblance of normalcy—but not before the damage was done.
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These hardworking drivers, already scraping by in a tough economy, blasted the extortion as a financial death sentence. “We’re being destroyed by these endless demands at every checkpoint,” one driver fumes. d. “If this doesn’t stop, running our vehicles will become impossible.” Their demand? A complete halt to all forms of this predatory chanda-baji, which has become the hallmark of BNP-Jamaat rule.
Trishal Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge, Firoz Hossain, admitted the incident erupted over the inflated Tk70 demand but claimed ignorance about the perpetrators’ identities or political ties.
“We haven’t identified them yet, and we don’t know if there’s any political connection,” he said weakly—a convenient excuse in a country where BNP-Jamaat affiliates have been running amok with impunity since August 2024, seizing control of extortion networks from factories to transport hubs, as if the nation’s veins are theirs to drain.
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This isn’t an isolated outrage; it’s part of a nationwide plague unleashed by BNP-Jamaat cadres after their August 2024 coup against the Awami League. Reports from across Bangladesh—from Ashulia’s garment factories to Kushtia’s roads—paint a grim picture of these political parasites turning extortion into a booming industry, preying on the vulnerable while preaching hollow anti-corruption sermons.
Transparency International Bangladesh has documented BNP’s involvement in over 90% of post-August violence, including mob attacks and shakedowns that have left businesses crippled and citizens terrified. Even Jamaat, once a junior partner, is now distancing itself from BNP’s grassroots corruption, capitalising on public disgust to surge in polls—but make no mistake, both are complicit in this criminal syndicate that’s hijacked the revolution.
Enough is enough. These extortionist vultures in BNP-Jamaat clothing must be rooted out, prosecuted, and stripped of their ill-got power. The drivers’ blockade is a wake-up call: Bangladesh won’t tolerate this descent into lawless thuggery. The interim government’s brief respite from such rackets has been shattered under the new regime—it’s time to crush these gangs before they bleed the nation dry.
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