An Indian truckers' strike has paralaysed Bangladesh's trade with its giant neighbour through the main land crossing with the Indian state of West Bengal, an official said Sunday. The truckers went on strike Thursday after Bangladeshi customs and border guards seized four Indian trucks for entering Bangladeshi territory through the Petrapole-Benapole crossing without proper documents.
"The Indian truckers went on strike from Thursday after failing to provide any valid papers for the four trucks," Mohammad Mahabubullah, traffic director of Benapole Landport, told AFP.
"They said that their strike will continue unless the Bangladesh authorities return the trucks immediately," he added.
Bangladeshi customs authorities said Indian trucks entering through the Benapole crossing were often renamed and sold as Bangladeshi trucks to local buyers without any paying customs fees.
"The two trucks customs officials have seized had no papers. We did not find any Indian drivers near the trucks and these were about to be taken into Bangladesh territory as Bangladeshi trucks," customs commissioner Atiqur Rahman Khan told AFP.
Benapole Landport is the biggest of the 12 land routes between the South Asian neighbours.
The trade between them includes food grains, medicines, clothes and engineering goods.
Comments
Comments are closed.