Siliguri, Feb. 20: Reaz Rehman, a director of Bangladeshi conglomerate Transcom Group was in for a shock when he landed at Bagdogra airport this afternoon.

“I came to know that an indefinite shutdown has begun in the hills. Over a hundred of our employees are here for a two-day conference in Darjeeling from tomorrow. The bandh has thrown all our plans into disarray,” Rehman said.

“I can’t decide what to do. Do you have any suggestions?” he asked at a Siliguri hotel.

The Transcom Group is into a number of businesses — tea, distribution, manufacturing and media. It also bottles soft drinks for PepsiCo in Bangladesh.

“I hope the hill leaders understand that it will not do anybody any good if many people like us are troubled,” Rehman said.

The tourist firm handling the group said bandhs were “doing immense damage” to the tourism industry. “This bandh was called when the visitors had already left Bangladesh,” said Samrat Sanyal, a partner of Nature Beyond.

Many tourists cancelled their trip to the hills because of the unrest. “We were expecting two groups today,” said Animesh Chakraborty of Help Tourism. “Both cancelled their programme.”

“Generally, we get a large number of bookings for March and April by early February,” Chakraborty added. This time there have been few. “People are afraid.”