“Bring my son back; where is my son? What have you all done to him?”
The anguished cry of a mother, whose son was burnt to death by blockaders, was blowing in the wind in the hospital corridor.
Her son, Mohammad Rabin, 25, had received burn injuries on Thursday as miscreants torched the bus he was on in Shahbagh. He succumbed to his injuries around 3:40pm on Friday evening at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Rabin, 25, son of Abdus Salam, worked in a sweater factory. Partha Shankar Pal, a residential surgeon of the burn unit, told the Dhaka Tribune that 59% of his body was burnt.
Rabin was shifted to ICU soon after the incident as his respiratory system was affected from the fire. Hailing from Shibchar of Madaripur, his pregnant wife Maria Akter Mafi lives with his mother Aklima Begum in his native village.
Aklima was walling at the burn unit gate. She said Rabin came with his cousin Nahid to Dhaka on Thursday after visiting his pregnant wife as Nahid insisted on buying some winter clothes.
Nahid, a student of Class IX of Kutubpur High School, was also among the 19 burns victims. He died first at the hospital.
“What would I say to his pregnant wife who is waiting for the return of her husband?” said Aklima.
Abdus Salam, father of the victim, said they would file a case to ensure punishment of the perpetrators.
Of the 19 burn victims, 16 patients are undergoing treatment at the DMCH. Two of them died while the family of advocate Khodeza Nasrin, 45, who suffered 21% burn injury, shifted her to Mohammadpur Modern Clinic for better treatment.
Of the 16 patients, Jahangir Hossain, 45, accountant of Goshairhat Upazila, who suffered 15% injury is undergoing treatment at ICU as his respiratory system was affected while Mohammad Nurunnabi, 55, Assistant sub-Inspector (AB-5771) is also undergoing treatment at ICU with 10% burn injuries. His respiratory system was also affected.
Partha Shankar Pal, attending doctor of the unit said if patients’ respiratory systems are affected then it is an abnormal case.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Dulu Mia, 32, a police nayek who received a splinter injury in a crude bomb attack at Joypurhat Bata intersection last Monday, is still lying unconscious even after four days of multiple operations.
The on-duty doctors of ICU of DMCH said his left eye was totally damaged and he is still unconscious as some splinters dug deeper into his head, affecting his brain.
On Friday evening, Dulu’s wife Rojina Begum was found sitting on the floor of ICU gate as visitors were not allowed inside the ward. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune she said her daughter Dinat Jahan, seven, a student of Class I, wanted to see her father.
Holding back her tears, Rojina said on the day of the incident he called her at noon asking about the launch and that was her last conversation with her husband.
In the latest 71-hour rail-road-waterways blockade programme about 42 people with burn and splinter injuries have so far been admitted to the DMCH. Of them, four people have died while undergoing treatment.
