Puttalam tuned into a ghost town yesterday when all business establishments and private sector institutions put up shutters and staged a hartal against the Aruwakkalu Gabage Recycling plant which is being built.

More than 2,000 business establishments and private sector institutions including supermarkets, pharmacies, catering services, hotels and suppliers of essential commodities participated in the hartal.

Residents said the protest which was launched on Wednesday ended yesterday with the hartal. Meanwhile, when one of the wayside hotels in the town was open an unruly crowd rushed to the scene and threatened the owner and forced him to close it.

A special police contingent had been deployed to strengthen security in the town. (Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe)