The three drivers, who were severely burned when violence erupted during Jamaat-e-Islami’s 48-hour general strike, have all died of their injuries, with all their deaths reported on Monday.
Bus driver Nazrul Islam Bhuyan, 35, succumbed to his injures around 6am while the injured truck driver Sekendar Bepari, 42, died later that morning around 9am. The third driver, Shamsur Rahman Samsu, 55, died around 3pm.
Samsu was travelling to Panchagarh from Sirajganj with fertiliser. His truck was attacked and set on fire by hartal activists when he stopped near the Bogra-Shahjahanpur road on Wednesday night.
Samanta Lal Shen, director of Burn and Plastic Surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) said they tried their utmost to save the victims but the patients were in critical conditions.
Nazrul had 65% burns after Jamaat-Shibir activists set fire to his bus near Gazipur bypass area as he was taking a bus full of passengers to Dhaka on Wednesday. Later in the evening, Sekendar received 52% burns when Jamaat-Shibir activists set fire to his truck in Comilla’s Chouddogram when he was on his way to Chittagong from Dhaka.
Nazrul’s wife Sabina was wailing as she came to receive her husband’s body from the hospital while Sekender’s brother looked stricken when he received the body.
Chouddogram police filed cases against 59 Jamaat-Shibir activists, and Joydebpur police lodged cases against 16 Jamaat-Shibir activists.