Activists of Hefazat-e-Islam blocked the Chattogram-Rangamati Highway and the Chattogram-Khagrachhari Highway on Wednesday morning, protesting the death of a central leader in a road crash the previous afternoon.
Traffic has remained suspended on both the highways while hundreds of vehicles remain stranded.
Chattogram Additional Police Superintendent Kazi Md Tarek Aziz told reporters that the authorities are trying to reduce tensions and persuade the agitators to lift the blockades.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hefazat’s central committee member Mawlana Sohel Chowdhury, 50, suffered a road crash in front of Nabin Sen Government Primary School in Raozan upazila. A speeding bus hit his motorbike from behind as he attempted to cross a road on the vehicle, leaving the Islamic leader critically injured.
He was rushed to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Sohel hailed from Sandwip upazila and lived with his family in Raozan municipality.
Bd-pratidin English/ ANI
