Noakhali, May 22 (UNB) – The dawn-to-dusk hartal, enforced by the district unit of BNP protesting the sending of BNP joint secretary general Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon to jail by a Dhaka court, was under way here on Tuesday

There was no report of any untoward incident during the early hours of the shutdown.

Earlier, on Monday, BNP men brought out processions at different places of the district in support of the hartal and to press for the release of the 18-party leaders arrested in connection with a vehicle torching case.

The case was filed for torching a bus near the Prime Minister’s Office during hartal on April 29.

A Dhaka court on Monday indicted BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and 44 other leaders of the BNP- led 18-party alliance in the vehicle torching case. The same court also sent Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon, MP to jail after he surrendered before it seeking bail in the case.

Soon after the court order, BNP leaders and activists burst into protest at Sonaimuri upazila, the constituency Khokon, and held a rally at the upazila headquarters.

They also put up barricade on Sonaimuri-Chatkhil road at about 1:30pm and vandalised at least six buses, four trucks and two CNG-run auto rickshaws, disrupting traffic for an hour.