Port employees shout slogans as they participate in a starvation strike in entrance of the Chittagong Press Club in Chattogram on November 1, 2025, protesting the interim Bangladesh authorities’s choice to lease working licences to a international firm. | Photo Credit: AFP
“The decision has been taken against the national interest. This decision will not be accepted under any circumstances,” Anwar Hossain, chief of the Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP), an apex physique of employee unions, instructed the rally on the port metropolis.
The token starvation strike, joined by activists from varied employees’ and political organisations, got here a month after the port employees started protests in opposition to Professor Muhammad Yunus’ plan to lease out the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) to UAE-based operator DP World.
The protestors stated the NCT at Chattogram port — Bangladesh’s most important commerce gateway — was constructed with “home funds and trendy expertise” whereas it emerged because the nation’s “most profitable container terminal”.
Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest garment exporter and depends closely on Chattogram port for many of its imports and exports.
Soon after assuming energy after final 12 months’s violent road marketing campaign that toppled then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s authorities, Mr. Yunus insisted the power — strategically situated on the Bay of Bengal — needs to be handed over to the “finest operator on the earth”.
His insistence sparked rapid reactions amongst safety specialists and protests within the political enviornment, which light from public focus amid subsequent political turmoil.
However, it resurfaced in September when Yunus stated Bangladesh by no means explored the complete potential of the Bay of Bengal, although it was “an integral a part of our nation” and expressed his authorities’s need to improve ports at southwestern Cox’s Bazar, Matarbari, and Maheshkhali.
“These ports can foster a regional economic system and strengthen financial ties with Nepal, Bhutan, and the ‘Seven Sisters’ (of India), benefiting all events,” he stated on the ceremonial signing of the July Charter.
Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners’ Association (BOGSOA) Chairman Azam J. Chowdhury earlier stated, “It makes no sense to lease the terminals that we developed and have been operating for the past 40 years”.
SKOP chief and former Chattogram port basic secretary Kazi Sheikh Nurullah Bahar stated on the demonstration that the state should shield public belongings reasonably than lease or promote them. Mr. Bahar additionally urged Mr. Yunus to make sure a free and truthful switch of energy by means of polls.
The protest was staged, defying a police ban in opposition to rallies or road marches by the port employees, whereas the SKOP leaders stated the starvation strike was step one in opposition to the federal government choice.
They warned of coordinated labour actions, together with sustained work stoppages and blockade of port operations, if the federal government didn’t discard the plan.
The state-run BSS information company stated DP World expressed curiosity in working the port’s New Mooring Container Terminal, and Danish delivery large AP Moller-Maersk expressed need within the Laldia Container Terminal on the outskirts of the port metropolis.
The Shipping ministry’s senior secretary Mohammed Yousuf stated that “agreements are expected to be signed by December” between the international operator and the interim authorities.
On October 12, the official stated two extra terminals — Laldia, additionally in Chattogram, and the river port of Pangaon in Dhaka — would even be leased to international firms for 25 to 30 years.
Mr. Yunus earlier stated his authorities would provide the container dealing with process to “best” and “most skilled” worldwide port operators to show the port right into a world-class facility. Several safety specialists feared the choice would possibly ultimately endanger Bangladesh’s sovereignty.
“I urge the countrymen to not enable themselves to be the victims of baseless opposition and propaganda. Continue your sturdy assist for the interim authorities’s port administration transfer. Resist those that oppose it,” Mr. Yunus instructed a nationwide tv tackle in June this 12 months.
In the identical tackle, Mr. Yunus stated, “The folks we’re bringing in to handle the port haven’t threatened the sovereignty or nationwide safety of any nation they’ve labored in”.
The Chattogram Port handles over 90% of Bangladesh’s maritime commerce and almost all of its container site visitors.
Published – November 01, 2025 09:07 pm IST
