The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by Jamaat-e-Islami was ignored by the people in Chittagong city and its adjacent district on Sunday.Jamaat called the countrywide shutdown protesting the upholding of the death sentence by a four-member bench of the Appellate Division to its chief Motiur Rahaman Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation in 1971.
The port city was largely peaceful from the early hours of the strike. No processions were brought out by supporters of hartal.
Traffic was almost normal since the morning as a good number of motorized vehicles mostly commuters’ services, buses, auto rickshaws and other rickshaws were seen plying on the city streets.Any activities by pro-shutdown elements were not reported from the port city and the adjacent upazilas during the hartal, said police. Attendance in public, private offices and banks were normal and trading activities at Chaktai-Khatungonj, the prime wholesale business hub in the countr.
, was also normal, Khatungonj business association sources said.
Work in all 174 industries in Chittagong Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) went on as usual and attendance there was normal. All scheduled trains to and from the port city ran, Railway and CEPZ authority sources said. Scheduled domestic and international flights took off from and landed at Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport, airport sources said. Loading and unloading operations inside the port and outer anchorage were as usual but transportation of goods to and from the port remained suspended.
Security was beefed up and maintained in Chittagong and adjacent districts since Wednesday.
Law enforcers were seen deployed at almost every major street of Chittagong since early Sunday.Apart from regular law enforces, additional members of police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have also been deployed in Chittagong and some other parts of the district to avert any destructive activities during hartal.
Departures of long-distance buses from the inter-district terminals at GEC crossing, Pahartali and Bahaddarhat bus stand were less than usual due to dearth of passengers.Classes and examinations of almost all the educational institutions in the city and adjacent districts were held during the shutdown. Metropolitan and District police control room sources said there was no report of any untoward incident from any part of the city and district during the strike.
Chittagong District Police in overnight special drives, arrested 70 persons, including activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir, from different areas of the district on Wednesday night. Sector Commanders’ Forum brought out a procession protesting the hartal. Bangladesh Awami League (AL) and its front organizations dominated almost all the city streets by holding rallies and bringing out processions.Chittagong city unit President of AL and former mayor A B M Mohiuddin Chowdhury and city Mayor A J M Nasir Uddin addressed separate series of way side rallies where he said hartal totally failed as the people of Chittagong rejected it.
