On Monday, he told the Dhaka Tribune, “I am already dead,” describing the unbearable pain from the 90% burns on his body. Death has now put an end to all his sufferings.
Yesterday in the early hours, transport worker Mohammad Majedul, 25, and two others succumbed to their injuries, the latest in a long line of innocent victims killed during the opposition’s blockade programmes.
When our correspondent visited Majedul at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Monday, he was found crying in his sister’s arms and asking to meet the rest of his family for a last time. It was an unbearable scene for our reporter, who left the place soon afterwards, unable to speak.
“You think that I am alive, but I am already dead and they are just talking to a dead man. Is it possible for a living person to bear this pain?” he wheezed.
Majedul, Nazrul Islam, 35, and another blockade violence victim Nazrul Islam, 38, passed away despite the earnest efforts of Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s doctors.
They had been injured in three separate incidents.
Majedul survived four days after getting burned. Nazrul, who had received 20% burns, fought for his life for a day. The other Nazrul Islam, who received a head injury from picketers, survived for three days.
Majedul, was the son of Mohammad Ishaq from Naogaon Sadar.
With a truck laden with vegetables, two drivers Ataur, Shahin and helper Majedul were on their way to Dhaka from Sirajganj. The two drivers were shifting their duties.
The truck was attacked by picketers at Sirajganj around 10pm. He and Shahin managed to escape from the truck, but in a horrifying act of cruelty, the picketers caught them, poured petrol on them and set them on fire.
Locals rushed them to a nearby hospital. On Sunday they were shifted to DMCH.
Partha Shankar Pal, the resident surgeon of the burn unit, said they had lost hope for Shahin.
Another arson victim truck driver Nazrul Islam, 35, son of Mohammad Fazar Ali from Kalihati, Tangail was on his way to Chittagong from Dinajpur with a rice-laden truck on Monday night. Pickets attacked the truck at Kaliakoir, Gazipur near the Ansar Academy. They hurled a petrol bomb into the driver’s cabin.
His helper Nuruzzaman also got burnt. Local rushed them to the burn unit of DMCH.
“We started for Chittagong on Friday evening and halted in Tangail for two days fearing blockade violence. On Tuesday evening we started again but could not avoid the danger,” said Nuruzzaman at DMCH.
Kaliakoir police station’s Officer-in-Charge Omar Faruque said police had filed a case in connection with the attack. They had arrested three youths, Saddam Hossain, 19, Md Rana, 20, and Md Hasan Miah, 23, for their suspected involvement in the attack.
Another truck driver, Nazrul Islam, 38, who sustained a head injury after blockaders attacked his vehicle in Magura on Saturday, died at DMCH around 12:30am. Nazrul was a resident of Kola village in Jhenidah Sadar upazila.
He came under attack near Magura bus stand on his way to Dhaka from Jhenidah, said victim’s uncle Abdur Rashid.
He was injured as a brick chip thrown by blockaders hit his head while he was trying to escape the attack, said Kazi Jalal Uddin, the officer-in-charge of Jhenidah Sadar Police Station.
Islam was initially admitted to Faridpur Medical College and Hospital. Later the same day, he was transferred to DMCH as his condition deteriorated.
Over 150 people have died in the past few months in the ongoing political violence.
