'Protect Damkura cattle market in Rajshahi'

Tension sparked off as local people including traders from several villages under Damkura union on the outskirts of the town marched to Paba upazila headquarters in 15 trucks under the banner of Damkura Pashu Hat Rakkha Sangram Parishad (Body to protect Damkura cattle market).

The agitators had an altercation with the police when the latter intercepted them and asked them to withdraw the barricade at around 12:00 noon.

Communication on the road was disrupted forcing a large number of buses and trucks stranded.

Law enforcement agencies deployed huge forces to avoid any untoward incident.

The agitators also held a rally with its Joint Convenor Abdus Samad Sarkar in the chair.

It was addressed by parishad convenor Prof Ashraful Haque Tota, Joint Convenor Deen Muhammad, Nawhata UP Chairman Abdul Gafur, former UP chairman Shahjahan Ali and district Jubo League President Prof Asaduzzaman.

At around 1:00pm, Paba Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sheikh Mojibur Rahman came to the venue of the rally and received a memorandum from the leaders.

They said the cattle market at Damkura is very old and it involves livelihood of some 50,000 people of the locality and its surrounding areas.

On February 27, the upazila council leased out the market to a group of some 100 traders at Tk 3.75 crore.

Being failed to take the lease of the market, Langra Babu, a pro-BNP man, in collaboration with Rajshahi City Mayor and BNP leader Mizanur Rahman Minu set up a new market near Damkura forcing the old one to suffer losses.

To shut the new cattle market and protect the old one, thousands of local people started agitation a couple of months back.

"If our demands are not met immediately, we will go for tougher programmes," said Ashraful Haque.