“I only see a bleak future as I belong to a poor family which is run with the little money I earn by driving a truck,” lamented Arman lying on a bed in the burn and plastic surgery unit of the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
“I am now confined to hospital bed. Who would help us now?” Arman crumpled his face in excruciating pain and asked the million-dollar question.
The 45-year-old man, while taking to the Dhaka Tribune, yesterday said he had to collect money for his two young children – Shanto (12) and Sayem (10) – and his pregnant wife.
“I may pass a day without having any food but what would happen to my children and my pregnant wife?” he posed a question.
Arman lives in the capital’s Basila area of Mohammadpur with his wife Shilpi Akther and two children.
“Leaders of both the major political parties sleep happily in their warm and cosy living rooms but we lose everything and pass our days in pain and sufferings. Please, do something to stop such inhuman acts. It is unbearable,” says Arman.
On Saturday night around 8:30pm, he was coming back home at Basila from Gabtali by brothers Paribahan. Soon after the bus reached near the Basila of Mohammadpur, pickets threw two petrol bombs at their buses and in no time it went up in flame.
One bomb came through one of the front-side window as it was open while the other pierced through another glass-window. “I have jumped off the bus through a window but by the time the fire had caught me,” says Arman.
Arman suffered 12% burn injury in his back, abdomen and hands. Doctors said he was out of danger but needs a long-time treatment to heal.
In the same incident 75-year-old Abu Taher is sufferings from 12% burn injury in his face and his respiratory system was affected too. Taher was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit of the burn unit.
Taher along with his son Abu Bakkar and wife Helena Begum came to the capital from Pabna on Saturday to see a doctor. But ill-fated Taher fell victim to the arson attack.
Abu Bakkar, a private car driver, too received burn injury in his left hand.
Morzina, daughter of Taher, told the Dhaka Tribune that they lived in Kamrangirchar.
“The only earning member of our family is my brother Bakkar and now he landed in the hospital with burn injury. We poor people are always victims of such attacks.”
The bus fire also burnt 25-year-old Billal who is undergoing treatment in critical condition at the ICU of the burn unit. He received 25% burn injury with his breathing system affected.
Billal works for a buying house. He comes from Lalmohon area of Bhola. He has his wife Shima Akther and a two-month-old girl Sinha.
Billal’s uncle Fazlur Rahman said Billal was only the earning member of his family. If something bad happens to him only God knows what was awaiting his family members.
A police constable Morshed (45) who has been serving his force for the last 19 years is now suffering with 8% burn injury in his face at the ICU of the burn unit.
Morshed was burnt after arsonists hurled petrol bombs at a police bus in the capital’s Matsyabhaban area.
At present a total of 18 patients are undergoing treatment while 34 have been released in the last 13-day countrywide indefinite blockade.
Of them, four persons are now undergoing treatment at the ICU in critical condition.
Prof MA Kalam, chief of the burn institute, said the prime minister is aware of the burn victims and “she said the government would bear the expenses of the burn victims”.
On Sunday morning, Director of the Prime Minister Office Julfiqar Ali Lelin came to the hospital to enquire about the burn victims.
Lelin said all kinds of facilities would be ensured for the burn victims and each of them has already been given Tk10,000 primarily.