(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-23 23:33

DHAKA -- After a three-hour respite, the indefinite curfew was re-imposed on capital Dhaka and five other divisional headquarters Thursday evening to restore normalcy in public life marred by violent student protests.

There were no reports of any major untoward incident during the curfew in the capital Dhaka, as army, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police strictly patrolled the city streets, private news agency UNB reported.

The authorities lifted the curfew imposed from 8 pm Wednesday for three hours from 4 pm allowing stranded people to reach their destinations and city-dwellers to attend urgent business or do some quick shopping.

After having been stuck-up for 20 hours since 8 pm Wednesday, people in their thousands came out on the streets, some busy returning home while some attending their necessary work. But again lack of transport caused misery to both commuters and city- dwellers.

Mobile-phone networks remained snapped during the three-hour relax.

Witnesses said the curfew got underway in an apparent relaxed mood early Thursday when a good number of rickshaws, cars and buses were seen plying the city. Some small shops and hotels lifted their shutters.

But RAB and police patrols, using microphone, asked pedestrians to stay indoors and rickshaw pullers and other vehicles to go off the roads showing respect to the curfew law. The city streets soon turned deserted as the law-enforcers strictly enforced the restrictions.

The government Wednesday declared curfew in six divisional cities and in the wake of the violent student protest, which was led by a quarrel between armymen and some students in Dhaka University playground when watching a football match on Monday night.

The students held processions after the armymen beat some students, demanding withdrawal of the army camp from the campus and apology from Army Chief Moeen U Ahmed for the incident. They also demanded withdrawal of state of emergency imposed on January 11.

The violence was escalated in the last three days, leaving one person killed and about 600 others wounded in capital Dhaka and major cities. In view of the situation, the government withdrew the army camp from the university campus.