Things for Mujibur couldn’t get any worse when he found himself trapped in the middle of an arson attack the other day. Nightmares that he thought he had long buried were finally coming to life.
He lost his power of speech at a very tender age – at the age of seven – when he became seriously ill with typhoid; his poor parents couldn’t do anything to prevent the resulting dumbness. That was the beginning to a life of misery which was about to follow.
He grew up to be a truck driver and a sole breadwinner of his family – his three children, wife and mother – but what he earned in his profession was barely enough to feed them all. All hopes and dreams were set aside.
However, the attack on that fateful December 9 in Comilla burnt 20% of his body and made him as helpless as he probably was when typhoid impaired his speech for life.
Mojibur, 42, is now undergoing treatment at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Doctors are hopeful about his recovery. “He is responding well to our treatment and the injury is healing,” Dr Partha Shankar Pal, residential surgeon of the unit, told the Dhaka Tribune.
However, his family, having no means to bear the cost of the treatment or even bear their own living cost, is desperately in search of anything that could help them at this period.
Aleya Begum, the victim’s mother, said Mujibur had a meagre daily income and had no savings at all. “We are going through an extremely difficult time since he became hospitalised, literally begging to people for food and money.”
“We don’t know what it is going to be like in the coming days; I see no hope.
“Doctors told us that Mojibur would need several months to recover fully. But what will we do or who will we go to during this time?”
When this correspondent approached the victim for a comment, he was clearly in labour, tears rolling down his cheeks, with both eyes vacantly looking into the space. He only raised his left hand in response to a question concerning his present condition.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister M Mujibul Haque visited the burn unit yesterday evening and distributed varying amounts of consolation money and medicine among the arson victims being treated there.
