Victims of the recent political violence, who have been recovering from their injuries at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation in the capital,were faced with risks of sus-taining long-lasting effects of the trauma.
Among the six victims, the youngest, Lima would apparently be the worst sufferer. The three and a half yearsold baby-girl lost fingers from her right handwhile, among the two police constables, who were hurt in a bomb blast near the BNP slum area, Constable Abdul Mannan’s hand would take more than a year to recover, the doctors said.
Yesterday Lima was seen sleeping in a bed around 3pm. Her mother, garment worker, Shohagi and father a driver, Al-Amin were beside her.
“Doctors have given her sedatives asshe cries out in pain, whenshe is awake,” said Shohagi.
Shohagi has remained absent in his workplace since her daughter was injured while playing with a cocktail ducked in red tape, mistaking it as a ball.
Now, her parents had three things to worry about, if their employers would sack them for being ab-sent at their work place, how they would afford Lima’s treatment costs over Tk1000 every day and lastly, when Lima grows up, who would marry a girl without fingers, said Lima’s parents.
“Those who had made the bomb or abandoned it in front our house, will never know what they have done to us. May Allah bless them so they do not do these things again,” said Al-Amin.
He said many people came to the hospital to see her daughter since the incident. Hospital doctors were also being kind, taking extra care.
“A woman came here three days back and gave Lima a set of dolls to play. See, apart from the crimi-nals, there are kind people in the world as well,” said Shohagi.
“Lima wakes up sometimes and stares at those dolls. She seems happy at that time,” she said.
In another room in the same hospital,Constable Abdul Mannan was lying down on a bed, with seri-ous injuries in his left hand, throat, and legs. His collogue Md Habil was in the bed next to him,in a relatively condition than Mannan.
Mannan, who drove a police vans, said god saved him that day.
“We were on petrol duty near the BNP slum, and I was on the driving seat. Suddenly someone hurled a bomb that broke the windshield and exploded inside the driver’s cabin,” he said.
“I lost grip of the steering, but kept going. They hurled three more bombs at the car.”
Finally, Mannan, who could not use the hands to open the door to escape, jumped off the running car. The car stopped some yards away after hitting a road island.
“The youths were chasing our car. They charged two more bombs, as I fell and was crippling on the road. But Habil Bhai, who was beside the driver’s seat came out from the car and fired his shotgun to drive away the youths,” he said.
Doctors have so far conducted three operations on his left hand. Mannan is in better shape now but yet to be fit enough to be released from the hospital.
Asked if he was scared of going back on duty again, he said, he did not care.
“It’s not easy to be a driver of a police van. Previously I was in the riot police. So, I know what the worst situation can look like. I will definitely go back to his work again with courage,” he said.