Business in over 300 markets under Reazuddin Bazar and adjoining areas resumed yesterday afternoon after four days as the Section 144 imposed there Thursday was withdrawn following a fruitful tripartite meeting.

A number of traders opened their shops in these markets at around 5 in the afternoon.

The hawkers from now on will be allowed to run business on sidewalks, on a limited scale, without hampering pedestrian movement, according to a decision in the meeting attended by traders, hawkers and members of the law enforcement agency.

However, they would not be allowed to sit on the roads and at the entry points of different markets.

The attendees included Bakhtear Khan, president of the Chittagong city unit of Sramik League, Mahbubur Rahman Etly, general secretary, Jouhar Lal Hajari, ward councillor of Chitagong City Corporation, and Mahbubul Islam Tuku, vice chairman of

the central unit of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association.

Held at the CMP headquarters, the meeting, also represented by the traders from Reazuddin Bazar and Tamakumandi Lane, was chaired by Abdul Jalil Mandal, CMP's additional police commissioner.

“Section 144 has been lifted after the feuding groups promised not to lock in any further clashes," said Banaj Kumar Majumder, deputy commissioner (north).

Meanwhile, the points where the hawkers are to be allowed to do business will be decided today at a meeting in presence of law enforcers.

Earlier on Sunday, Mayor of Chittagong ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury sat with both the groups separately to reach an amicable settlement of their disputes.

Chowdhury assured the hawkers of rehabilitating permanently, said Masud Rana, general secretary of the Chittagong Sammilito Hawkers Federation, who was present during the parley with the city mayor.