100 picked up during relaxed hartal

The half-day hartal yesterday was observed partially with a significant number of vehicles seen plying the city streets. Activities at offices, shopping complexes, banks, etc went as usual.
However, during the hartal police picked up around 100 pickets from different points in the capital, said Masudur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of Detective Branch of police.
Pickets vandalised three vehicles-- a private car, a taxicab and a CNG-run three-wheeler-- at Dhaka University (DU).
The national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports announced the hartal on June 18, protesting a contract signed between the government and an American company for oil and gas exploration from two deep-sea blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
This hartal coincided with a strike called by Islami Andolon Bangladesh (IAB) to protest at the removal of "Absolute Faith and Trust in Allah" from the constitution through the 15th amendment.
The national committee at a post-hartal press briefing declared protest rallies across the country for today against the arrests of its leaders and activists. It claimed that over 200 activists were arrested yesterday.
Prof Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the national committee, was picked up from Paltan intersection around 6:40am. About an hour later, Paltan police released him.
Police held 61 people from Paltan on charges of picketing and disrupting vehicular movements. In Shahbagh, police rounded up 26 people, mainly leaders and activists of Progatishil Chharta Jote (PCJ), an alliance of left-leaning student bodies, from the DU campus for joining a pro-hartal protest.
Secretary General of IAB Yunus Ahmed at a press briefing at the party's Paltan office alleged that over 70 activists of the party were arrested during the six-hour hartal.
Meanwhile, over 20 socio-political organisations in separate statements condemned the police "torture" on the national committee activists and demanded release of the arrestees.