( Reuters ) - Traffic poured onto the streets of Bangladesh's main cities on Friday as the army-backed interim government relaxed a curfew imposed two days ago to quell street violence, allowing people to venture out to buy essentials.
"The law and order situation is fully under control," the country's police chief, Nur Mohammad, told Reuters, dismissing fears the curfew relaxation might see a return of the protests, which had begun as a student demonstration on Monday.
A statement from the government said the curfew, which was lifted at 8 a.m. (10:00 p.m. EDT), would be reimposed at 10 p.m.
The curfew -- which shut down public transport, schools, banks, clinics and pharmacies -- was imposed in Dhaka and five other cities on Wednesday after a student-led protest against the presence of troops at a football match at the Dhaka University campus turned violent and spread across the country.
The violence subsided on Thursday, as security forces patrolled the streets and the authorities warned they would take stern action against disorder.
All universities and colleges in the six cities, including the 40,000-student Dhaka University, were closed indefinitely.
Security forces detained two Dhaka University professors late on Thursday, including Anwar Hossain, general secretary of the university's Teachers Association. The other was professor Harun-ur Rashid, dean of the Social Science Department.
"My father and uncle Anwar were picked up by joint security forces at their homes on the university campus. I don't know where they have been taken," Barnali Rashid, daughter of Harun-ur Rashid, told Reuters by telephone on Friday.
Two other teachers, one of them Saidur Rahman, a former vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University in the country's northwest, were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly instigating the student unrest, said an officer of the joint forces in Rajshahi.
Police also arrested Azizul Bari Helal, a top student leader at Dhaka University, and filed cases against 2,500 students for Wednesday's violence which killed a rickshaw puller and injured some 300 people countrywide.