Shirajul Islam Shishir:

An on duty traffic constable came under attack by some footpath grabbers, while he was trying to make the busiest road free from traffic congestion at Boro Baza’ar area in Sirajganj town on Tuesday afternoon.

The injured traffic constable Jahid is now undergoing treatment at Shaheed M Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital in the town.

After the incident, police arrested three persons in this connection. The arrested are: Polash Ahmed, 20, Monir Hossain, 37, and Rubel Ahmed, 36, of the town.

Humayun Kabir, OC of Sirajganj Sadar thana and Traffic Inspector (TI) Saiful Islam said that, a section of traders had been carrying businesses by setting makeshift shops on the footpaths for long that leads to immense traffic gridlock on the main streets of the town ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The arrested along with their associates engaged in altercation with the on duty traffic constable Jahid centering the issue. At one stage, they assaulted him physically, while he was trying to clean the rickshaw gridlock created on the main road at the mentioned place due to huge rush of buyers and visitors around the makeshift shops set up on the both side footpaths.

Hearing the hue and cry, locals rescued the traffic constable from the clutch of attackers.

On information, police from Sirajganj Sadar thana reached to the spot and detained three of the attackers. They were also sent to Jail on Wednesday after producing before a court.

Earlier this, a case was lodged with the respective police station in this connection naming Polash Ahmed, Monir Hossain, Rubel Ahmed and Salam. Five to six others were made accused as unnamed.

Earlier on March 3, Sirajganj district administration in collaboration with police administration led by Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Nazrul Islam conducted a drive in the town to evict illegal shops on the footpaths and monitor the market situation. During the drive, many makeshift shops of the footpaths were removed. Due to the drive, some buses including SI Enterprise, Ovi Enterprise, Sirajganj Line, Sheba Line and Zenin Enterprise left their counters set up on the both sides of New Dhaka Road in the town. Those buses had started plying from Mirpur terminal and several other spots with the directive of Deputy Commissioner (DC) to keep the town’s road free from traffic congestion. But surprisingly, those buses returned to their previous pavilions just after a week of the drive. As a result, town’s roads have filled up with the long queue of buses again that leads to rickshaw gridlock regularly eve of the Eid festival.