The dawn to dusk strike (hartal) called by BNP in Dhaka city, protesting “widespread irregularities” in the city corporation elections, ended peacefully with little impact on public life.
Although there were fewer vehicles on the street, people went to office and other places like every other working day. There were no traffic jams on city streets on Sunday.
No violence was reported except vandalizing of a CNG auto rickshaw and a car in front of the Central Shaheed Minar on the Dhaka University (DU) campus, allegedly by leaders and activists of Chhatra Dal.
BNP leaders, including the two defeated city mayoral candidates Tabith Awal and Ishraque Hossain, joined a demonstration with about 100 supporters in front of their Naya Paltan party office.
No other major incidents were reported during the daylong hartal.
Besides the BNP leaders, at least 30 Chhatra Dal activists carried out a procession, starting from the emergency gate of Dhaka Medical College Hospital to Jagannath Hall. At that time, Chhatra Dal leaders and activists reportedly vandalized the CNG auto rickshaw and private car, though they denied the allegation.
The usual number of buses departed from Dhaka, though there were fewer passengers. On the other hand, city buses got more passengers and some office goers had to wait longer than usual for public transport buses.
"We are getting more passengers as the number of buses is fewer than usual,” said Jahangir Alam, the driver of a Shikbor Poribahan bus.
BNP, however, claimed that police arrested several of their leaders and activists during their protests.
Protests only at Naya Paltan office
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi started the day with a procession, but immediately after police rushed there, they took position on the footpath in front of the party office, and burnt a dummy Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) there.
About 100 BNP leaders, including the two BNP backed defeated mayoral candidates Tabith Awal and Ishraque Hossain, were among the protesters and stayed there until the evening.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir joined the protest around 9:30am and stayed there briefly.
However, with the police ultimatum to leave the place within 30 minutes, they went inside at around 12pm and started again when Tabith came to the place around 2pm. Police kept the protesters confined till 2pm.
Meanwhile, at the end of the day, BNP declared they would hold demonstration rallies across the capital on Tuesday demanding cancellation of the election results.
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said: “We demand the immediate release of Khaleda Zia.”
