As the nation heaves a collective sigh of relief that normalcy has returned to the country, one Noakhali family feels that it cannot join in, a year after the BNP alliance’s blockade scorched the land in a blaze of firebombs.
Life has not returned to normal for them, nor will it ever, father Jaber Uddin fears.
His son Tanzimul Haque Ayon, daughter Salma Akther Anika and wife Shamsunnahar Begum were all burned in a petrol bomb attack on their CNG-run autorickshaw in the capital’s Agargaon neighbourhood on December 28, 2014.
The cruellest part of the story is that the family, from Noakhali’s Hatia upazila, was in Dhaka to take Anika to see a doctor.
“My daughter is the youngest of my three children. She often wakes up crying because she feels guilty that the family was attacked while returning from her doctor’s visit,” Jaber says.
Ayon, a student of the drama department at Jahangirnagar University (JU), had come down from campus to help his mother find a good doctor for his sister.
But their autorickshaw was firebombed by blockade enforcers and the three members of the family ended up in the Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Ayon received 15% burn injuries, Shamsunnahar 10% and Anika 2% on her ear.
Ayon still cannot move his right hand and has been receiving physiotherapy each week for a year at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) in Savar.
“The government has given us money to help us, but what will I do with money if my daughter and son can never enjoy a normal life again?” Jaber Uddin says to the Dhaka Tribune. “My son, who loved to lead his life like a flying bird, is now reduced to shuttling to hospital to receive physiotherapy six days a week.”
“Although the government has helped my son by giving us Tk10 lakh, what will we do with it? He endures unbearable pain every day,” Jaber says, adding that it would be more helpful if the government took the money back and sent Ayon abroad for treatment instead.
Jaber’s wife Shamsunnahar, a teacher at Hatia Model Pilot High School, has been on medical leave since the attack.
“My wife receives physiotherapy at Mirpur CRP. My other son, Munsur Oni, who worked in the Chittagong branch of Exim Bank, obtained a transfer to the capital and has rented a place so that the family has a place to live while they are treated,” Jaber says.
“We are a middle-class family. We just want a regular life. All of you: the DMCH doctors, my son’s teachers and classmates and the government have been a great help.
“But I need some more support from the government for my son’s treatment,” he adds.