Bangladesh’s biggest Islamist party Jamaat-E-Islami has declared a 72-hour nationwide strike that could stand to disrupt vessel movement and delay cargo arrival.
The countrywide protest was scheduled after the group’s leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, was given a death sentence for wartime crimes. While not directly related to the nation’s textile industry, a logistics firm doing business in the country said the strike has a high possibility to create vessel misconnections or delay arrivals to destinations.
According to the logistics company, which requested anonymity, “This nationwide strike will impact the productivity of the vessels, cargo stuffing at CFS, delay cargo arrival at Chittagong from different parts of the country especially from Dhaka to Chittagong. Export load containers also may not reach from Dhaka to Chittagong by Rail vis-à-vis from Chittagong to Dhaka on time. Both laden and empty containers may not run between Port-CY and Off- Docks and EPZs vis-à-vis.”
The first phase of the strike will take place for 24 hours beginning 6:00 a.m. Oct. 30 to Friday Oct. 31. Phase two of the strikes will last for 48 hours from this Sunday, Nov. 2 at 6:00 a.m. until Tuesday Nov. 4 at 6:00 a.m.