Mobile phone sellers and their staff blocked the Karwan Bazar intersection in Dhaka this evening, protesting the government’s move to deactivate unregistered handsets from December 16 under the National Equipment Identity Register (NEIR).

The protest started at about 5:45pm, when several hundred traders sat on the road, bringing traffic in the area to a halt.

Imran Hossain, a handset seller from Bashundhara City Shopping Complex, told The Daily Star that the group wants revisions to the newly implemented NEIR policy.

According to him, the NEIR rules would require importers to pay roughly 57 percent in taxes, pushing handset prices almost twice as high.

“We will stay on the streets until the government makes the necessary changes to the NEIR,” he said.

Traffic inspector Sobdul Ali Mollah, stationed at the Karwan Bazar signal point, confirmed that the traders blocked the intersection around 5:40pm and vehicle movement has been stopped since then.

As of around 8:00pm, the demonstrators were still continuing their blockade, the inspector added.