The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the main opposition BNP in Chittagong yesterday ended peacefully. BNP enforced the hartal protesting the arrest of party leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
No untoward incident has been reported. The city life, however, slowed down, as there was few transport on the road except for rickshaws.
Vehicular movement became normal around 4.00pm.
Law enforcers kept at bay the leaders and activists of city BNP as they tried to take to the streets in the morning.
Huge contingents of police were deployed at Bahaddarhat and Nasiman Bhaban, two key points where BNP men gathered in two previous hartals.
BNP Chittagong city unit president Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury along with 50 to 60 party activists and leaders brought out a procession from his Mehedibagh residence and was heading towards the party office at about 11:00am.
Police stopped them at Chatteshwari crossing and requested them not to proceed further.
Talking to reporters, Khasru criticised the government for obstructing the procession. The BNP leader claimed that the people of Chittagong fully supported the hartal.
Jedan Al Musa, assistant police commissioner of Kotwali zone, said they stopped the procession to prevent any worsening of the situation and damage of public property.
BNP's Chittagong city unit called an eight-hour hartal from 6:00am in the port city hours after the arrest of the party's standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury in Dhaka on Thursday. On December 17, the hartal was extended to a full-day one.
Quader was arrested on charges of planning and financing an arson attack on a car in Moghbazar on June 26 that left one person dead.
Meanwhile, Awami League Chittagong city unit held an anti-hartal rally on the old railway station premises around 3.30pm.
Addressing the rally, AL city unit president ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury demanded capital punishment of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for his alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Activities inside Chittagong Port, however, continued with loading and unloading of 36 vessels at different jetties and outer anchorage duly completed.
Biman Bangladesh Station Manager Md Abul Kashem said all Biman flights to and from Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport operated on schedule.
Trains to and from the port city also ran normally.