Dhaka: The eight-hour hartal, enforced by the left-leaning parties, protesting the fresh power price hike, is underway on Thursday in a slacked manner.

The shutdown that began at 6:00am will continue till 2:00pm.

Vehicular movement was seen normal in the capital.

Significant number of law enforcers was deployed at important points of the city to fend off any unwanted incidents.

Police, meanwhile, detained 10 to 12 hartal supporters as they tried to obstruct vehicular movement but they were released later, said Mahmudul Islam, officer-in-charge of Paltan Police Station.

Left party leaders-activists were chanting slogans protesting power tariff hike at Shahbagh intersection, said Abul Hasan, OC of Shahbagh Police Station, adding that vehicular movement here remained normal. 

In Gazipur, the movement of public transports in the city is normal but the number of private vehicles is less than the other normal days.

In Savar, one of the entry points of capital Dhaka, number of long route buses was seen thin.

A large number of law enforcers were kept deployed in various places of the city.

On November 23, the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) on an average raised power tariff by 5.3 per cent or Tk. 0.35 per unit.

BERC Chairman Monwar Islam announced the decision saying that the new tariff will come into effect from December.

Later on the day, Ganatantrik Bam Morcha, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) and Socialist Party of Bangladesh (BSD) jointly called the hartal for Thursday.