Sylhet yet to recover from shrine blast

The blast dented the city life, particularly its economy and threw intending travelers to Britain into uncertainty as the British High Commission visa centre is yet to resume activities.

The blast also warmed up the political arena. Both the ruling Four Party Alliance and the opposition Awami League are protesting the incident and blaming each other for this.

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People are now being allowed to enter the shrine through all the three gates without checking but few are coming to visit the shrine and offer prayers. The number of visitors to the city has sharply declined.

Like in the past, big gathering was not witnessed at the Jumma prayer at the shrine yesterday though BDR was withdrawn a week earlier. Police are still deployed in the area.

Business in the city is still dull, particularly in the shrine area.

Sale of different items like tosha shinni (alms), agar, atar, caps, traditional Manipuri clothes and cane made items in the shrine area has fallen greatly.

Talking to this correspondent, manager of a hotel at the shrine gate said the incident ruined the image of the country and of Sylhet.

"The number of boarders has fallen by 50 per cent and we do not know when the situation will improve".

Shop owner Kamal Hossain also expressed the same view. "People from across the country used to visit the shrine till midnight, but the blast totally changed the scene".

Meantime, many people have already missed their visa interview dates as all activities at British High Commission's visa centre are suspended since May 23.

Now they would have to get fresh dates.

Every day, many people go to the visa centre at Kumarpara to know when it would resume work.

The security chief at the British High Commission in Dhaka visited the Sylhet office on May 31.

An official told this correspondent that a decision on resuming work will be made soon.