The government has decided to relax the ongoing curfew for 13 hours for four days starting Wednesday (July 31).

The curfew will remain in force from 8pm to 7am till Saturday.

The decision will be effective for four districts -- Dhaka, Narayanganj, Gazipur, and Narsingdi. In other districts, the local administration will decide on the curfew.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan made the disclosure Tuesday around 6.45pm after a special meeting at the secretariat.

At the same time, all public and private offices will run their operations as per their normal schedule -- 9am to 5pm -- from Wednesday.

The Ministry of Public Administration sent an SMS to the media in this regard Tuesday (July 30).

From July 28, public and private offices were operating for six hours, from 9am to 3pm.

At the special meeting, the home minister said the violence did not stop even after accepting all the demands of the students during the quota movement.

"So, we were forced to impose a curfew.

"We discussed the peace and law-and-order situation across the country.

"The curfew will be relaxed from 7am to 8pm from Wednesday to Saturday.

"Besides, the education minister will decide when the educational institutions will open.

"Considering the technical issues, the state minister for ICT will decide when the internet will be fully restored," he said.

The nearly three-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, attended by the seven ministers and state ministers, started around 3.20pm.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway (BR) will resume operations of passenger trains on a limited scale from tomorrow, around two weeks after the service was suspended.

Some local, mail and commuter trains will be operated on the short-distance routes during the break of the ongoing curfew, Railways Minister Zillul Hakim said Tuesday.

However, no decision regarding the intercity train service was taken, he told reporters after a meeting with the officials of his ministry and railway at Rail Bhaban. 

BDST: 1041 HRS, JULY 31, 2024
MN/SMS