Dhaka, April 17 -- By the time Md Israfil finally rolled his motorcycle into Talukdar Filling Station on Friday morning, he had already spent the night in line.

He had taken his place near the bridge by the lake at Zia Udyan around 8pm on Thursday, hoping that after hours of waiting he would at least leave with a tank of fuel. Instead, when he reached the front at about 7am, with only three motorcycles ahead of him, workers announced that the fuel was gone.

Around 30 motorcycles had already entered the pump compound by then. They too were told to return after Friday prayers. The gate was shut.

When bdnews24.com returned around 1:30pm, the owners of those bikes were still waiting outside.

Some had gone home and come back. Some had fini...