PM gifts CNG auto-rickshaw, rickshaws to July uprising participants

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday gifted a CNG-run auto-rickshaw and pedal-driven rickshaws to two participants of the July mass uprising to help them become self-employed and earn a livelihood.

The prime minister handed over the vehicles to the recipients at a ceremony at his Tejgaon office.

He spoke to each of them and enquired about their physical condition, families and livelihoods.

Mohammad Aziz Sheikh, a resident of Lohagara upazila in Narail and a second-year honours student in the Department of Social Work at Mirpur Bangla College, received the CNG-run auto-rickshaw.

He supports his family and continues his studies by driving a CNG auto-rickshaw. He was shot while participating in the July uprising in the Mirpur-10 area, sustaining 36 bullet fragments in his body.

The prime minister urged him to continue his studies.

Two pedal-driven rickshaws were gifted to Md Gaffar of Kushtia. During the July uprising, he regularly supplied water to protesters in the capital’s Mohakhali area and transported injured people to hospitals in his rickshaw.

Gaffar said he would operate one of the gifted rickshaws in Dhaka to earn a living and rent out the other.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman gifted two battery-powered auto-rickshaws to 65-year-old Asadul Haque Bishu, a resident of Gabtali upazila in Bogura, who had been struggling to make ends meet due to a lack of employment opportunities.

The prime minister personally observed how the gifted vehicles would be operated and gave them necessary instructions on safely taking the vehicles to their respective destinations.

BNP lawmaker Advocate Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, Prime Minister’s Press Secretary Abu Abdullah M Saleh Shibli and Additional Press Secretary Atikur Rahman Ruman were present at the event.