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Hartal passes off without major incidents

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by main opposition Awami League (AL) and six left-leaning political parties yesterday to protest the attack on eminent writer Humayun Azad and demand the BNP-led coalition government's resignation passed off without major incidents of violence.
At least 20 opposition activists were injured in the capital when police clubbed a procession of Shyampur thana unit of the AL in Dholaipar area in the capital in the morning. Police also picked up nine AL activists from the spot to cap the number of arrests in the capital. Elsewhere, at least 48 people were injured. The shutdown, fifth in a spate of general strikes since February 12, stopped life in Dhaka and other districts on its track. Yesterday's strike was the first to be enforced by a unified opposition since the October 2001 general elections that brought the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to office.
Most shops, schools, banks, businesses and the stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong remained closed while cargo-handling at the seaports suffered heavily. All modes of transport except rickshaws, a few three-wheelers and buses were off the roads throughout the day.
Police and other law enforcers yesterday preferred to watch prohartal demonstrators unlike in the last four hartal days and a good number of senior opposition leaders were out there on city streets although the presence of activists was thin. Police did not bar antigovernment demonstrators from staging processions in the streets and the pickets did not try to stand in the way of whatever vehicles were on the roads, either.
Opposition leaders and workers staged demonstrations across the city during the hartal hours. The left-leaning parties brought out processions from near the Paltan intersection since early morning. Top leaders of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Workers Party (WP) and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD-Inu) led the processions.
Around 8,000 law enforcers including paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles fanned out across the capital to head off violence.
The AL, WP, CPB, Hasanul Haq Inu-led JSD, Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal, Ganotantri Party and Gano Azadi League simultaneously called for the 6:00am to 6:00pm shutdown also to protest downslide of law and order, unabated corruption, price spiral of essentials and closure of state-owned mills and factories.
In Dhaka, a group of the AL lawmakers led by Deputy Leader of the Opposition in parliament Abdul Hamid took out a procession from the Jatiya Sangsad at about 11:20am and staged a rally at Russell square.
The legislators said they were forced to stage demonstrations on the streets instead of in parliament as the alliance government has made it totally non-functional. They demanded immediate ouster of the government.
Police put barbed-wire fences on both sides of AL's Bangabandhu Avenue headquarters early in the morning. However, senior AL leaders including Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Abdur Razzak, Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, Asaduzzaman Noor, Akhteruzzaman, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Sultan Mohammad Mansur, Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and Nazma Rahman brought out a silent procession and marched down the streets of Paltan and Dainik Bangla intersections.
Later, the leaders with some 50 workers assembled for a rally at Muktangon at about 10:30am.
Two crackers were exploded near Paltan intersection at the end of the rally, reportedly from a bus.
After the rally, the AL men returned to party office in a procession. At about 11:50am, police picked a female hartal supporter named Nupur from near Bangabandhu Avenue only to release her after the hartal hours.
In Chittagong, police and activists of the ruling BNP-backed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) swooped on a procession of the CPB and its student front Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU) at Dohazari under Chandanaish thana in the morning, injuring at least three hartal supporters.
Police clubbed the demonstrators in the joint procession in Reazuddin Bazar's Tinpool and Amtala areas and at Central Shaheed Minar premises between 11.30am and 11.50am and dispersed them.
Three Molotov cocktails, thrown from speeding autorickshaws, were exploded in front of the AL office in Darul Fazal Market area between 11.15am and 1.40pm, just before and after a scheduled AL meeting there. Noone was however injured in the blasts.
In Satkhira, at least 25 WP leaders and activists were injured, seven of them critically, when police charged baton on them at Nazmul Sarani in the town at about 7:30am. Police also laid a siege to district AL office early in the morning, obstructing AL leaders and activists from assembling there.
In Gopalganj, pro-government JCD and AL's student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists clashed at Kashiani thana, leaving at least 20 injured. The BCL men also ransacked local BNP office during the clash while police fired two rounds of tear gas canisters to restore discipline.
Our DU correspondent reports that the JSD-backed BCL brought out a pro-hartal procession and held a rally on Dhaka University campus. Presided over by BCL President Shariful Kabir Swapan, the rally was addressed by its General Secretary Ali Hasan Tarun, Sazzad Hossain, Hossain Ahmed Tafsir and Mohammad Selim.
However, activists of pro-AL BCL could not enter the campus amid a heavy presence of police and JCD men. Police put barricades at the entrance of the campus. The BCL in the afternoon tried to bring out a procession from Dhaka Medical College Hospital area but police chased and dispersed the pro-cessionists.
All the left-leaning parties, meanwhile, yesterday announced to stage demonstrations across the country on March 9 to protest attack on their party leaders during the hartal hours.