Though there was no other major trouble reported from any part of the country during the strike hours, it succeeded to put brakes on public life and economic activities. Shops remained closed, as well as most of the educational institutions, business houses and other establishments. All modes of vehicles, excepting rickshaws and a few motorised three-wheelers and buses, kept off the road.

Awami League (AL) called the 6:00am to 6:00pm general shutdown protesting what it said was unprecedented rigging in Thursday's by-polls in Dhaka-10 and the June 21 bomb blast at a meeting of senior AL lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta in Sunamganj that killed one person and injured 70 others. It was also to protest killing of two policemen by the cadres of ruling BNP's student wing during a robbery in Motijheel and killing of editor Humayun Kabir Balu in Khulna.

The party however kept Gazipur Sadar and Tongi from the hartal's purview to facilitate submission of nomination papers by intending candidates to Gazipur-2 parliamentary by-election slated for August 1.

DHAKA
In the capital, some 6,000 police and paramilitary troops were deployed at the vulnerable points to fend off troubles. A large consignment of police in riot gears cordoned off the AL central office in Bangabandhu Avenue since early morning and barred the party activists from gathering there. Police also made the area off-limits to pedestrians.

Mostly the women activists of the opposition staged demonstrations in different city areas during the hartal hours. Police batoncharged them in Bijoynagar and Paltan areas leaving over a dozen injured.

Police batoncharged a procession of Jubo Mahila League, the young women wing of the party on Bijoynagar Road at around 11:20am, leaving several leaders and activists injured. Women police pounced on the procession from different directions and clubbed the processionists at will. They also dragged seven demonstrators and pushed them on to a police van parked nearby.

A group of AL lawmakers took out a procession from the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban at around 11:30am, which was joined in by other senior leaders when it reached Russell Square in Dhanmondi after parading along Mirpur Road. The processionists staged a sit in and held a rally at the square for over an hour.

Police also chased and dispersed processions of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) and Mahila League at Kalabagan bus stand when they were marching towards the rally of AL leaders and lawmakers at Russell Square in the noon.

During the chase, some opposition activists jumped into a nearby lake to avert arrest. Police nabbed two AL women activists at the spot.

In another incident, police dispersed a procession of Jubo Mahila League near Farmgate at about 11:30am.