A sacrificial animal market has been set up on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in the Mohammad Ali area of Feni. Cattle and goats are tied up on the Dhaka-bound lane and trading is in full swing.

Although the lease clearly states that markets must not be set up on or beside the highway, this has not been followed here. The result is traffic jams on the road and hardship for passengers and drivers.

Locals say a market set up illegally like this could cause an accident on the highway at any time.

Afsar Uddin, who came to buy an animal, said setting up a market on the highway like this was wrong and had added to people's suffering.

Another buyer, Mozammel Hossain, said: "We are going through a famine of conscience. Otherwise why would people risk lives by setting up a market beside the highway?"

Buyer Abdul Gani Bhuiyan said: "It is Eid season and people are heading home from towns and ports. At a time like this there is a cattle market on the highway. There is no one to look at the traffic jams and public suffering."

Jane Alam Bhuiyan, chairman of Sharshadi union, denied that the market was on the highway. "The market has not been set up on the highway, nor beside it. The highway is free of cattle markets," he said.

Feni superintendent of police Zakir Hasan told Jagonews: "I have heard that a market has been set up on the highway. We will look into it, and if it is found to be true, legal action will be taken."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.