Kushtia: A dawn-to-dusk hartal, enforced by the local BNP, was observed peacefully Kushtia district on Tuesday without any major incident.

The pro-hartal activists vandalised two shops at Mazampur and four on NS Road in the district town. They also torched two auto-rickshaws on NS Road in the morning during the hartal.

Shops, businesses and educational institutions remained closed and almost all modes of vehicles, except a few rickshaws and easy bikes, went off the roads.

Police have been deployed at different points in the town.

A mobile court jailed two activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal for one-month for vandalising a truck at Mazampur at about 11:00am.

A court in Kushtia on Monday sent 13 leaders and activists of BNP to jail after rejecting their bail prayers in a case filed by police on charges of assaulting police and obstructing them in performing their duties.

President of district unit BNP and former MP Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi and general secretary Sohrab Uddin were among the leaders.

MA Shamim Arzu, joint general secretary of district unit BNP, told journalists that the local BNP called the hartal angered by the court order.

Obaidur Rahman, sub-inspector of Kushtia Model Police Station, filed the case against 18 identified and 400-500 unidentified BNP leaders and activities following a clash between BNP and police in the district town on December 10 last year.

On 13 December, 2012 a High Court Division Bench granted an ad interim bail to six leaders, including president and general secretary, of district unit of BNP.

Later, a lower court granted bail to other leaders and activists till January 20.

(FK/AMA/22/01/13)