2 ACC officials hurt in pickets’ attack

Two officials of Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) were injured in an attack by pickets in the capital’s Dhanmoni area Thursday, the last day of the 48-hour hartal (shutdown) enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami.The injured officials are ACC deputy directors Mir Mohammad Zainul Abedin Sibli and Mafidul Islam, reports private television channel Independent TV.The incident took place on Satmasjid Road near Ibn Sina Hospital around 9:45am.Besides, the pro-hartal activists vandalised two buses and blasted two crude bombs in the same area, witnesses said.Masud Karim, officer-in-charge of Dhanmondi Police Station, however told The Daily Star that they have information of two crud bomb explosions in the area.Jamaat is observing the hartal to protest the Supreme Court verdict that sentenced Jamaat assistant secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah to death.The apex court handed down the verdict overruling the judgment of International Crimes Tribunal-2 that had given him life term for war crimes committed during country’s Liberation War in 1971.The city dwellers have been carrying out almost all their daily activities defying the hartal.The shutdown got little response from the masses as almost all businesses and offices are going on with regular routine.A number of motorised vehicles were seen plying the city streets in the morning while the presence of private vehicles was thin as usual. Shopping malls and roadside shops remained closed.Rickshaws are seen dominating the city roads like other hartal days.No long-distance buses entered or left the capital since the first day of hartal.Huge law enforcers, including members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), have been deployed in the key point of the capital to fend off any untoward incidents and ensure people’s security during the hartal hours.