Hundreds of students of Dhaka College took to the streets on Wednesday afternoon and obstructed vehicular movement in the New Market area of the capital.

This comes hours after the shopkeepers of the area said they wanted to reopen the businesses. They say the Eid-ul-Fitr sale has heavily been hampered due to the violent clashes with the students since Monday night that resulted in the deaths of one person and injuries to dozen others.

Bystanders said they heard explosions of molotov cocktails in the area. Additional law enforcers have been in place to avert any untoward incident.

In the morning, the situation was relatively calm with the movement of traffic returning to normal. Many traders did not open their shops. Employees were seen standing still with worried looks on their faces in front of their shops.

The shopkeepers said they wanted to reopen their shops as soon as possible.  “We want to open our shops. I want everyone's cooperation. We want to open all shops right after the press conference,” Bangladesh Shop Owners Association President Md Helal Uddin told a media call on Wednesday.

He said the shop owners want to do business peacefully.  When asked about journalists being attacked during the clashes, Helal said: “Our employees are not that educated. Please let us know if they have misbehaved; we will take action against them.”

He also expressed regret over the whole incident and prayed for salvation of the departed soul of the young man who succumbed to injuries sustained during the skirmishes. On the other hand, Dhaka College acting principal ATM Moinul Hossain told reporters that the clashes with traders had left more than 200 students injured. The condition of three students who had been seriously injured was improving, he added.

On Tuesday, at least 40 people, including pedestrians and media persons, were injured in the clashes between New Market traders and Dhaka College students. Among them, A 20-year-old worker of a delivery service died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital later in the day from his injuries. Another worker is currently on life support at the same hospital.

An ambulance with a patient inside was vandalized near a New Market foot-overbridge around 11:45am. Several people from either side were left injured in the skirmishes. At one point, the authorities also snapped mobile internet services in New Market area as the situation worsened further.

The injured journalists alleged that both the rowdy students and shop employees beat them up when they were discharging their professional duties. Several reporters and camerapersons from various media houses, including Bangla Tribune, Deepto TV, and Daily Manab Zamin, were attacked by shop workers while they were covering the clashes.

Shop owners and employees alleged that the journalists were not reporting the facts about the clash.