The city dwellers suffered heavily as evicted shanty dwellers of Karail Slum blocked the Airport Road for three hours suspending traffic movement since Thursday morning.
The law enforcers managed to clear the road at 12:15pm. Traffic movement resumed later.
Many HSC examinees could not reach their exam halls timely as hundreds of vehicles remained stranded on different city roads due to the protest, which began at 9:15am. The English first paper exam was held Thursday.
Thousands of people including students and office-goers passed hours under the scorching sun as vehicular movement on other city roads was also negatively impacted due to the blockade.
In face of the protest, the authorities suspended the demolition drive at Karail Slum, which began on Wednesday.
An hour after a team of Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL) resumed the demolition drive at 8:00am, over 500 people blocked the Gulshan-Mohakhali link road from Wireless Gate to Amtoli, said the duty officer of Gulshan Police Station.
The protesters later rushed to the Airport Road and blocked it at Amtoli intersection near Mohakhali flyover.
Within minutes, hundreds of vehicles lined up on both sides of the busy city thoroughfare.
“Fearing that they might vandalise vehicles, we restricted [stopped] vehicular movement on the road,” Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Gulshan Police Station, told The Daily Star.
The aggrieved slum dwellers put blockades at Amtoli in Mohakhali and Chairmanbari in Banani suspending vehicular movement on Airport Road.
Thousands of vehicles got stranded on the road, which connects the capital with the northern districts, due to the blockade.
They also protested blocking the Mohakhali-Gulshan link road at Wireless Gate and Tajuddin Ahmed Sarani near Mohakhali Bus Stand.
The blockade soon sent impact on other city streets and caused acute sufferings to students, office-goers and others.
The BTCL authorities, with the help of a Dhaka district magistrate, police and Rapid Action Battalion members, conducted an eviction drive on Wednesday following a High Court order to free the area from illegal occupants.
The authorities demolished around 2,000 structures stretching from Wireless Gate to Karail Slum.
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