Police on Sunday briefly detained civic activist Sohani Shifa after she set up a symbolic low-cost rice stall in front of the Bangladesh Secretariat to protest the continued occupation of roads and footpaths around Dhaka's metro rail stations by street vendors.

Shifa, president of the platform Dhaka Bachao (Save Dhaka), was taken into custody by officers from Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Shahbagh Police Station shortly after she began serving rice, lentils and mashed potatoes for 10 taka at around noon. 

She was released about two hours later after signing a bond.

A video of police detaining Shifa from outside the Secretariat circulated widely on social media.

A day earlier, Shifa had announced on social media that she would launch the temporary rice stall in protest against what she described as the authorities' failure to clear roads and sidewalks adjoining metro rail stations of illegal vendors.

Speaking to Samakal newspaper, Sheikh Zahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of the Ramna Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said officers intervened because cooked food was being sold on a footpath in an unhygienic environment.

"Cooked food, including rice, was being sold on the footpath in an unhygienic environment. So she was removed from the location. She was later released after signing a bond," he told the paper.

The incident comes amid growing public debate over the proliferation of street vendors around several metro rail stations in the capital and their impact on pedestrian movement and traffic.