<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Not only transport owners, the launch workers in Khulna have also embarked on a 48-hour strike since Friday morning, demanding a hike in wages.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Delwar Hossain, divisional organisational secretary of Bangladesh Launch Labour Association, said they called the strike to press home their ten-point demands, including wage hike, "and it has no connection with the BNP’s mass rally slated for Saturday".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A total of 15 launches ply on a southern route from Khulna but none of them left terminals since this morning, giving passengers a harrowing time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The workers on strike said their demands included wage hike, river excavation from Bhairab to Nowapara, and landing pass for India-bound launches.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">From Thursday evening, none of the passenger carrying launches left Khulna due to the strike announcement but freight launches and boats have been operating.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">SM Shafiqul islam Mona, BNP’s Khulna metropolitan unit convener, said on government’s signal, "first, bus owners called a strike and now the launch services are also shut to obstruct the BNP’s mass rally on Saturday".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The mass rally will be made successful at any cost, defying all these obstructions,” he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier, Khulna Bus-Minibus Owners' Association and the Motor Workers’ Union decided to go on a two-day strike in protest against the plying of unauthorised three-wheelers in the district. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>