Eid ul-Fitr tomorrow

Shopping malls in the capital become overcrowded the day before Eid

Eid ul-Fitr, the biggest festival of the Muslim community of Bangladesh will be observed tomorrow. Muslims across country thus observed the last Friday prayers of the month of Ramadan.

Despite the rain, malls were packed — men, women and children, all were finishing last-minute shopping.

Tailors’ machines still sew new clothes frenetically in order to deliver them by Friday night.

Eid mubarakA tailor master in a mall in capital Dhaka, Abdul Halim, says: “Most of the pressure we face is in the last week of Ramadan and especially the last day because everyone of course wants to wear a new dress on the Eid day.”

But the rain has slowed the shopping somewhat, leading salespersons are not even happy for their business.

A small shop owner in the city’s New Market area, Kollol Majumder, said: “Our business was not very good as rain interrupted it for a few days. People couldn’t come and shop around here in the volume that we expected.”

The day before Eid is also synonymous with traffic congestion as hundreds of thousands of Dhaka residents travel home by bus, train or boat.

The rain adds to the chaos as numerous people traditionally travel on the roof of trains’ passenger cars during the last days of Ramadan.

To ensure a smooth Eid, the government has asked apparel industry owners to pay salaries and bonuses to workers early.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers & Exporters’ Association president Atiqul Islam told reporters Thursday that 44 million garment workers had gotten their salaries and Eid bonuses and that they were leaving for home for vacation.

But one garment union — Bangladesh Garments Sromik Trade Union Kendra — is organizing a sit-in protest in Dhaka demanding dues from a garment factory.

The union’s general secretary Kazi Ruhul Amin said: “We have been here for six days demanding salaries that are due, the reopening of the factory and the withdrawal of false cases filed against a few workers.”

Courtesy: newsfultoncounty.com


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