The dawn-to-dusk hartal called by Jamaat-e-Islami in greater Chittagong yesterday did not have much effect on the lives of the general people.
On Monday, law enforcers arrested the chief of Chittagong unit Jamaat ANM Shamsul Islam and 20 others from the city with possession of bomb-making materials. Protesting the arrest, Jamaat called the dawn-to-dusk hartal throughout Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Khagrachhari, Rangamati, and Bandarban, in the greater Chittagong division.
However, during the hartal, government and non-government offices, business organisations, factories, industries, educational institutions and other functional bodies continued their operations like every other working day.
Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations took place as usual in and around the city regardless of the shutdown.
Vehicular movement was less than usual, though buses continued operating on the road and rail communication was undisrupted. However, no inter-district bus left the port city.
The only reported incidents were that the picketers vandalised three CNG-run auto-rickshaws on the city’s Chatweswari Road in the afternoon and in the early morning hours, police detained two Islami Chhatra Shibir activists near the Patharghata Ansar Club as they were preparing for the hartal.
Apart from these, no major incidents were reported in the port city and the 14 upazilas in the district during the hartal hours, said sources.
Abu Bakar Siddique, a resident of the city’s Halishahar area, told Dhaka Tribune that this type of hartal is not for the common people, even though they are the only sufferers.