A deep-seated fear of violence overtook city dwellers who virtually felt trapped inside their houses throughout Friday as the 18-party opposition alliances held rally in the capital.
The recreation areas represented a vacant look due to lack of the weekenders who were seized with apprehension that went down their spines.
Unless it was extremely needful, the city people seemed to have shied away from going out till late afternoon.
Following the rally in the evening, townsfolk hurried to come out only to get some necessary tasks done and return home as announcement of hartals instilled another fear into them.
There were very thin presence of vehicles on the deserted-looking city roads except some public buses struggling to get passengers.
Rickshaws and CNG-run auto rickshaws mainly plied across the metropolitan areas which were frequently patrolled by security personnel cars and armoured vehicles spreading more panic among people.
On weekdays, a large number of people are seen weekending at tea stalls and restaurants but Friday was different.
Tea stalls and restaurant owners reported they were visited by a very small number of customers on Friday.
“Even I could not sell one fourth of the cups of tea I normally sell in other days,” said Mohammad Jamal, a tea stall owner in the city’s Shewrapara area.
Even the roadside traffic jam which was a very common sight even on weekends in the area was not noticed.
“I go to see my relatives in a Dhanmondi hospital every weekend. It normally takes one hour to go there from Pallabi, but it took only 20 minutes on Friday,” said school teacher Ashraf Ali.
He noted that vehicles were largely off the most city streets the whole day.
Some private cars and public buses were seen plying on roads in the evening.
Though people breathed a sigh of relief after the rally as there was little violence in the city they said they were worried about volatile political situations in days to come.
“I heard that hartals have been called from Sunday and I am worried about it,” Milon Hossain, a rickshaw puller in Kolabagan area, told the Dhaka Tribune just after the rally.
He said he carried a very few passengers on Friday and could earn only one third of his regular income.
“A lot of people come to Dhanmondi 32 No. lake on weekends and I carry a good number of them, but today I did not get any,” he said.
Ratan Mian, a guard of a private bank booth in Dhanmondi area, said a very few clients came to the bank’s booth on Friday to withdraw money.
“Normally, there is a rush of people who withdraw money on weekends, but today the ATM booth was visited by a few only,” he added.
A pro-master’s student Abdur Razzak of Dhaka University said he had classes on Friday, but dared not go to university fearing violence.
“I phoned one of my classmates and he told me most of our friends opted not to attend class amid the risk of violence,” he said.
