Sporadic violence which accompanied the death sentence handed to BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury yesteray has left a 25-year-old man fighting for his life at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
On Tuesday, an hour after a tribunal awarded death penalty to BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for committing war crimes, some miscreants set fire to Nurul Islam’s covered van on Kazi Salahuddin Road in the capital’s Bangabazar area.
The doctors said Nurul, a driver of an oil company who hails from Chabitola village of Comilla district, sustained 45% burns including to both his hands and his legs up to his waist, and they described his condition as critical.
His mother, Amena Khatun, was on Wednesday shedding tears at the beside of her son at DMCH.
Witnesses said unidentified miscreants vandalised at least five vehicles and torched a covered van in Bangabazar area around 2:00pm.
Nurul Islam was inside one of the vehicles when it was set ablaze, they said.
At DMCH, Nurul told reporters that a group of around 30-35 people vandalised five vehicles and then set fire to his goods-laden van as he was taking rest after parking it aside Kazi Alauddin Road. A passer-by named Rana brought him to the hospital.
At least nine vehicles were vandalised and nine others torched in the capital and Chittagong on Tuesday, hours after the tribunal announced the verdict.
The International Crime Tribunal-1 on Tuesday handed down capital punishment to Chowdhury for committing crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.