Shawdesh Desk:

Road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on Sunday said that the issue of calling strike by the private bus owners was not his issue.

He made the remark while replying to a question of a journalist about transport strike for two days in Khulna ahead of a divisional rally of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party that was held on Saturday.

‘I didn’t stop BRTC buses. It’s not my issue whether private buses will run or not,’ he said.

Obaidul Quader, also the general secretary of the ruling Awami League, said that the buses were not stopped in Chattogram during the BNP rally on October 12.

Replying to a question about why buses were off two days in Khulna, he advised the journalist to ask the question to the bus owners.

He also said that elections were the safe exit for all political parties.

‘Awami League is a fighter party and we will fight,’ he said.

The AL leader said that only a few thousand people gathered at BNP’s Khulna rally while huge number of people usually gathered in AL rallies.