The air in the burn unit was heavy with the smell of burnt flesh. The entire place was filled with screams of victims in pain and the cries of their near ones unable to hold back their tears.
At the ICU of Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit, 12-year-old Monir Hossain was lying in an intensive care unit bed with 95% burns. There had been no improvements to his condition and the doctors had given up hope.
The boy was attacked by some hartal supporters on the first day of the opposition’s 60-hour hartal at Gazipur while he was going home with his father.
Rebeka Sultan, attending doctor of the ICU at the burns unit, said Monir’s condition was not good.
“However, we are trying and providing our best possible effort so that we can reduce some of his pain,” she added.
“In my life I have seen many burns patients. But these cases are different,” burns unit coordinator Dr Samanta Lal Sen told the Dhaka Tribune.
“Almost everyone is in a critical condition, since they were burnt by gun powder,” he added.
Ramzan Ali, father of the victim, said he had left everything up to the almighty and was preparing to accept his fate.
“Why did these people attack my child, who does not understand anything about politics? I did not take my van out on the road against their hartal, and yet they burnt it down,” he said.
Five other patients were improving, doctors said. On Monday, another hartal victim Mukul, an employee of Biswash Group, died at the hospital from burns injuries.
Benazir Ahmed, the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), was also visibly shaken by the extent of the victims’ injuries and their sufferings.
“Hartal supporters have no responsibility and no humanity in them. How could they force innocent people, including children, to the door of death by setting them on fire,” he told a press briefing afterwards.
“We feel hopeless and sorry for these heinous activities,” he said.
“They do not belong to a civilised society. If they belonged to any civilised society they would have stopped to think before burning innocent children and women.”
Commissioner Benazir Ahmed addressed the briefing at the burn and plastic surgery department premises after visiting those injured by hartal supporters. The DMP commissioner gave flowers and fruits to the victims.