A few hundreds of local people
blocked Sylhet-Tamabil highway at Jaintapur upazila in
Sylhet district on Tuesday morning
protesting the deaths of six members of a family in an accident on the road on Monday afternoon.
They blocked the highway around 10.00am and demaded that transport owners and workers must publicly apologise for the accident, no vehicles with goods and without licences will be allowed for plying the highway.
Locals said,"The highway has become a death trap. But the transport leaders feel no empathy for the victims of the road accidents. They have not even visited the families of the six victims who were killed in the accident yesterday.
"We demand accountability for the deaths and demand a safe highway," they added.
During the blockade, there was a long tailback of vehicles on both sides of the highway. Protesters however allowed emergency service vehicles to go through.
Jaintiapur Police Station's officer-in-charge Tajul Islam said they along with the transport leaders were on the way to the scene to take legal procedures.
Earlier, six of a family, including two children, were killed and several others injured in a head-on collision between a human hauler and a lorry in Darbasta area on the highway at Jaintiapur on Monday morning.
SA
