Chittagong police opened fire on a 40-year-old housewife while trying to arrest her brother, leaving her with gunshot injuries to her leg that caused the limb to be amputated.
The silent, limbless woman was staring blankly out of the hospital window when this journalist went to see her.
“I don’t know why they took my brother and shot at us without any reason,” she said in quiet voice.
Sajoa Akther, 40, of Satkania in Chittagong, is being treated at a Dhaka hospital for complications arising from her gunshot injuries.
Ramjan Ali, her husband of 15 years who is a farmer, and she have three children, Tasmin, 8, Joynal Alam, 6, and Shafi Alam, 4.
According to police records, Chittagong district Satkania police station Sub-Inspector (SI) Yeasir Arafat conducted a drive on October 16 to arrest Osman, Sajoa’s brother. During the drive, records show, police discharged their weapons in the presence of family members of the suspect, mostly women.
Sajoa said she had been visiting her father’s house since October 10 when on October 16 a police van arrived around 7pm carrying two policemen in civilian dress and eight other policemen. They tried to detain Osman who was just outside the house.
Sajoa says she, her sisters and her mother ran out to see what the commotion was about and found her brother crying as police held him. Police officials pushed the women away, she said.
Later, police took out a gun and shot her in the leg, Sajoa said in a low voice.
Sajoa says her brother used to be a Jamaat supporter but he subsequently stopped his political activities and worked as a farmer.
SI Yeasir later filed a case with the police station, that says his team fired eight rubber bullets during a drive to arrest Sajoa’s brother Osman, an alleged Jamaat leader.
Khalid Hossain, officer-in-charge of Satkania police station told the Dhaka Tribune that Osman was an accused in at least seven cases and that he was involved in several destructive activities in the area launched by Jamaat-Shibir men after the Sayedee verdict.
“On October 16, when police tried to arrest him, the relatives of Osman tried to snatch him away from police and police discharged their weapons to bring the situation under control and nothing else,” OC Khalid said.
Lokman Hossain, another brother of Sajoa, told the Dhaka Tribune that his sister was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital after the incident but doctors referred her to the National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR).
She was admitted there on October 17 and doctors at the hospital told the family Sajoa’s wounds had become infected. NITOR doctors amputated her left leg from the knee, Lokman said.
Not satisfied with the quality of care at the government hospital, the family brought her to Ibn Sina Hospital on October 20, he said.
Dr SK Ashraf Ullah, resident surgeon at Ibn Sina Hospital, who is looking after Sajoa, told the Dhaka Tribune that her leg was still infected and was being treated.
Lokman said his brother had earlier been involved with Jamaat politics and had two cases filed against him in 2013.
“On the day of the shooting my sister and mother just requested the police not to arrest Osman,” he said.
Police took Osman, he said, and shot at the family.
“After the shooting, police filed a case saying that my sister tried to snatch Osman away from police custody,” Lokman said
The Dhaka Tribune contacted an eyewitness to the incident, Joynal Abedin, a farmer and neighbour of Osman.
“We neighbours and the family of Osman asked police why they were taking him away. But police, without a word to us, started to shoot and then took Osman away,” Joynal said.
