Bangladesh transit rail back on track after protest closure

Bangladesh’s metro railway in the notoriously congested capital Dhaka resumed on Sunday, more than a month after it was closed during the peak of student-led protests that eventually toppled the prime minister.

Much in the troubled South Asian nation remains in political turmoil since the revolution that ousted Sheikh Hasina and ended her 15-year-long iron-fisted rule, but on Sunday, the trains at least were back on track.

Dhaka is one of the world’s most densely populated cities, and the railway is a critical transport link in the sprawling megacity of some 20 million people.

Banker Shaheen Sultana said she was delighted her commute to work was a “relaxed” affair after weeks of car-clogged gridlock on the roads.

“I am very happy that it is working again,” 40-year-old Sultana said, as she exited a station near her workplace in the city’s commercial heart. “It is a great relief.”

The elevated train network was closed in mid-July during the student-led protest.

In the deadly violence – which would see hundreds of people killed until Hasina quit and fled the country by helicopter on August 5 – the stations were vandalised by a mob.

The resumption of metro services is a key sign of a return to normal daily life.

Its reopening was ordered by the new caretaker government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84.

“In the absence of the metro I had to take the bus to work,” said Kaosar Khan, a speech therapist at a private hospital in the city.

“I faced massive traffic snarls,” Khan, 25, added. “It used to take two hours on the bus, but with the metro, I can reach my destination in 15 minutes”.

Hasina’s government was accused of widespread abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of political opponents.

Bu