First day sees stray incidents

First day of the two-day nationwide shutdown enforced by Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami passed off amid stray incidents in the capital and elsewhere in the country Wednesday.

The second day's hartal gets under way at 6:00am today (Thursday). It will end at 5:30pm.
Torching and damaging of vehicles, explosion of hand bombs, bringing out brisk processions, chase and counter chase between pro-hartal activists and police in some areas marked the hartal hours from 6:00am to 5:30pm on Wednesday.
No major incident was, however, reported during the hartal hours in the city as heavy contingents of police and Rapid Action Battalion members were deployed at
different parts of the capital to avert any untoward incident.

Besides, plainclothes police with cameras were put on alert at a number of strategic points in the city to identify the troublemakers during the shutdown.
"The daylong shutdown was almost peaceful as we don't have any report on severe violence," Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Masudur Rahman said. They would continue their vigilance in the days to come for the sake of public security, he added.  
The Jamaat called the 6:00am-5:30pm hartals for Wednesday and today (Thursday) across the country, protesting the special tribunal's death sentence to its senior leader ATM Azharul Islam for war crimes.
A covered van was torched at Mir Hazirbagh in the capital during the strike hours in the morning by pickets.