Police picked up 73 pickets during the 6:00am to 6:00pm stoppage called by the main opposition party in protest against price hike of essentials, closure of industries, alleged corruption by the prime minister and her family, killing of AL activists and politicisation of the administration.

The law enforcers, both men and women, assaulted women pickets and dragged them onto police van in Dhaka's Dhanmondi area.

The strike shut down the ports in Chittagong and Mongla, stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong, and most banks, businesses and schools across the country.

Traffic movement was thin in Dhaka and some other cities where some passenger buses and small vehicles operated skirting the hot spots.

At about 11:15am, policewomen used batons to disperse a gathering of the Mohila Awami League near the Saarc fountain on Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue in Dhaka.

The demonstrators, led by AL Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, Mohila Awami League President Ashrafunnesa Mosharaf and General Secretary Fazilatunnesa Indira, were clubbed when they tried to march towards the Russell Square through Panthapath, breaking a police barricade.

At least six women pickets suffered injuries and another two workers -- Sonali and Rani -- were picked up by police.

The activists who paraded through Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue from Shahbag intersection alleged that they were charged mindlessly by both policemen and policewomen.

At least 15 women activists were injured in a melee when police picked up another 16 demonstrators of the Jubo Mohila League, including its top leaders Nazma Akhter, Apu Ukil, Shamima Akhter and Adiba Anjum Mita, from Road No 27 at Dhanmondi when they were trying to stage a procession.

Ten people were injured when police clubbed a procession of Lalbagh AL near Hosseni Dalan in the old quarter of the city.

Police sealed off the Bangabandhu Avenue headquarters of the AL early yesterday by putting up barbed wire fences.

The Dhaka city unit of AL brought out a procession inside the barricaded area at about 10:00am. Police in force blocked their way out.

Another procession brought out from the AL central office by the party's Presidium Member Motia Chowdhury was also hemmed in by police at about 7:00am.

Demonstrators led by former home minister Mohammad Nasim, MP, staged a sit-in near Russell Square on the Mirpur Road for four hours from 11:30am.

A procession of the party led by frontline leaders Abdus Samad Azad, Abdur Razzak, Obaidul Kader and Abdus Shahid marched down the Mirpur Road.

A woman leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), student wing of the AL, was injured when police charged baton on their procession near the public library at Shahbag.

Shafiuddin Bitu, photojournalist of the Daily Inqilab, suffered head injuries when a stray stone hurled by a BCL activist at police hit him on the Bangabandhu Avenue.

Police picked up at least eight activists of the Awami Sechhasevak League, the volunteer front of the AL, from a demonstration at the Dainik Bangla intersection.

Another two activists of the front were arrested from Uttara.

The AL truncated its hartal programme by six hours in Sylhet division in view of a religious programme.

Our Chittagong bureau adds: The hartal disrupted cargo handling in the key port and shut most mills and factories in the industrial belt.

The strike shut the stock exchange, most banks, businesses and schools.Chittagong city AL General Secretary and Mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury addressed a rally and held the four-party ruling alliance responsible for the spate in crime, including abductions, in the port city.

Our Khulna correspondent adds: The strike shut down Mongla port, mills and factories, most banks, businesses and schools.

Roads were deserted of vehicles except for pedal rickshaws and train communication to and from the city was snapped.

Production in Crescent and Platinum Jubilee jute mills were stopped.

Our Barisal correspondent adds: Incidents of bomb explosion, torching of rickshaws and blocking of roads marked the hartal in the city.

Pro-strike pickets exploded bombs on C&B Road and Band Road and in Sagordi and Chand Mari areas. They also blocked the Chan Mari Road for about half an hour.

Our correspondents said the strike in Bogra, Manikganj and Gopalganj was observed peacefully.