Pabna, Sept 13 (V7N) – The All-Party Struggle Committee in Bera upazila has announced a dawn-to-dusk hartal and road and river blockade for Sunday, September 14, demanding the restoration of the Pabna-1 (Bera partial–Santhia) parliamentary constituency.

The announcement came on Saturday morning following a meeting of the committee at its temporary office in Sanyalpara, chaired by Alhaj Fazlur Rahman Fakir. The program was unanimously declared at the end of the meeting.

Among those present were Bera municipal BNP general secretary Salauddin Iqbal, organizing secretary Akshed Ali, former vice president of municipal BNP Sajedul Islam Dipu, representative of the Traders’ Association Nazrul Islam, rickshaw-van association general secretary Moin Uddin Khaja, Chhatuahat Traders’ Association general secretary Shaheen Mollah, and representatives of various organizations.

Discontent erupted after the Election Commission (EC) issued a gazette on August 4 announcing final constituency boundaries for the 13th parliamentary election. According to the new demarcation, Pabna-1 constituency was redrawn to include only Santhia upazila, while Bera upazila was fully merged with Pabna-2 (Sujanagar and part of Bera).

Since then, residents of Bera have expressed strong opposition. On September 7, protesters blocked the Dhaka–Pabna highway for two hours demanding restoration of the previous constituency structure.

Local leaders and protesters argued that excluding Bera from Pabna-1 was unjust, as Bera’s economy, trade, and community life are deeply linked with Santhia. They insisted that this realignment disregarded the historical and socio-economic ties between the two upazilas.

Fazlur Rahman Fakir, president of Bera municipal BNP, said, “For 50 years Bera and Santhia have been together in Pabna-1 constituency. It is one of the most significant constituencies in the country. We cannot accept the decision to separate Bera and merge it into Pabna-2. We demand immediate cancellation of the gazette and restoration of the Pabna-1 seat as before. As our demand has not been met, we have declared hartal and road and river blockade for Sunday.”

END/MSR/SMA/