A mob vandalised a 10-bed hospital at Chandia Gonoshasthaya Kendra under Kanchipara union of Fulchhari upazila on Saturday night as an employee has been absent for six days.
The locals were angry and attacked when a MLSS worker at the hospital Azadul Islam Azad, who left for Dhaka on September 23, did not return until Saturday. His relatives were among the attackers and they suspected that Azad had been a victim of enforced disappearance.
The attack left two female doctors and six health workers trapped in the building but they were later rescued by the police.
Azad’s wife Shahnaz Begum said Kawsar Ali Reza, regional director at the local office of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, sent Azad on an urgent assignment but he did not return until Saturday.
“We went to the Gonoshasthaya Kendra office and the hospital and they could not give us any precise information. My husband was also unreachable over the phone. We suspect he was forced to disappear,” she said.
Officer-in-charge of Fulchhari police station Moshiur Rahman and Gonoshasthaya Kendra official Reza said Azad was sent to the Gonoshasthaya Kendra headquarters in Dhaka’s Savar in relation to an investigation.
“Recently, the certificate of a health worker showing his completion of a three-year training programme at the Savar training centre of Gonoshasthaya Kendra was found to be fake by his employer. Probe revealed that he attended the programme only for eight months and left. He later bought the phoney certificate from Azad via Kazi Selim, who lives in Dinajpur. Azad was sent to Savar for investigation purposes but he escaped from there on Saturday morning after sensing the reason why we sent him to Dhaka,” said Reza.
"The locals were enraged and stormed the hospital. When police rescued the stranded doctors and health workers, they again vandalised the building and looted goods." he said.