The AL enforced the shutdown in protest at Friday's killing of AL lawmaker Ahsanullah Master and has called another dawn-to-dusk hartal in Gazipur district for today.

The 12-hour strike passed off almost peacefully in the city yesterday, leaving some stray incidents of violence including setting vehicles on fire, cracker blasts and scuffles between pickets and law-enforcers.

The hartal brought life to a standstill in Dhaka and elsewhere, disrupting transport movement, shutting down most shops, schools, banks, businesses and stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong, and affecting cargo handling in the seaports.

Police sealed off Bangabandhu (BB) Avenue where the AL is headquartered, kept its leaders and activists confined to the area and arrested two AL workers when they tried to force their way into Bangabandhu Avenue.

Police severely beat up an AL woman worker, shredding her clothes with baton charges that also caused blood stream down her back.

Incidents of several buses being burnt were also reported from the city's Gabtali, Dhaka Gate and Shyampur area throughout the day and four small explosions were also heard in different places in the capital.

Police picked up 32 opposition activists from different places in the city.

All business houses and shops were closed in Gazipur and Tongi, the home town of the slain AL leader. No motorised vehicles plied the roads and most people stayed indoors. Police and paramilitary BDR personnel guarded the important installations and government offices. They were also deployed at all road crossings in Tongi industrial town.

Police clubbed and dispersed a group of AL adherents when they tried to bring out a procession from the Cherag Ali market area in the morning.

Several dozen police and BDR personnel surrounded the AL office at Tongi Natun Bazar which remained vacant.

At least 26 opposition people were picked up during the hartal hours.

Law-enforcers fired rubber bullets and tear-gas canisters on angry AL supporters during clashes in Chandpur yesterday, according to BBC Bangla Service.

Private news agency UNB said six people, including a leader of AL's youth wing Bangladesh Chhatra League and a policeman, were injured in a clash between pickets and police in front of Sadar upazila nirbahi officer's (UNO) office during hartal hours.

Trouble ensued as police clubbed and fired on the pickets to keep them at bay as they tried to attack the UNO office. Opposition activists also threw brickbats at police injuring one of them. Among others, BCL leader Dipu Khan Chowdhury was injured during the clash. Police picked up five people from the trouble spot.

Opposition activists vandalised a number of trucks and auto-rickshaws at Lalmai and Padua Bazar bypass in Sadar upazila.

Our correspondent in Gaibandha reports 10 people were wounded when police charged batons on hartal supporters who barricaded inter-city express train Teesta for an hour at Bamondanga Railway Station in Sundarganj upazila.

At least 10 people, including three policemen, were injured and five shops were vandalised in a clash between hartal pickets and police at Kasba upazila of the district, according to our Brahmanbaria correspondent.

The clash erupted as AL supporters protested the arrest of Ajharul Islam, secretary of AL's Kasba upazila unit, following clashes between activists of the ruling BNP and AL Saturday morning. Police arrested five people.

Our Chittagong correspondent reports that the hartal passed off peacefully in the port city barring stray incidents which saw some vehicles damaged.

The pickets damaged an autorickshaw at Nandan Kanon at around 2:30pm and unruly activists another five autorickshaws at around 4:00pm.