Khan, the acting president of the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation, the top transport workers’ association, avoided the questions when reporters asked for his statement on the strike as he left his offices at the Secretariat on Sunday.

When the media persisted with their questions, he said he had ‘no comment’.

The 48-hour ‘halt to service’ was called by the Bangladesh Road Transport Workers Federation to call for revisions to parts of the new road transport law and to press for a list of eight demands.

Long-haul and freight service has been halted across the country, while public transport in Dhaka, Chattogram and other major cities is also closed. It has been alleged that transport workers are blocking private cars and other vehicles in some areas.

The long-awaited draft of the Road Transport Act was passed after pressure following a bus accident in Dhaka on Jul 29 that resulted in the death of two students and which triggered student protests calling for road safety.

But transport workers have objected to several parts of the law and are demanding they be cancelled.

The demands include making all accidents under the Road Transport Act ‘bailable’, the cancellation of the provision that allows a worker to be fined Tk 500,000 for involvement in a road crash, lowering minimum educational qualification required for obtaining driving licences from class VIII to class V, for transport worker representation on investigation committees on cases under section 302, an end to harassment by police, to set fines according to the wage scale and to require certification from a Workers Federation representative when vehicles are registered and penalties are overturned.

But Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader said on Sunday that it was not possible to accept the demands of the transport workers ahead of the elections and called for them to end their strike.

“They must be patient,” he said. “If there are any legitimate concerns they can be resolved through discussion.”