Struggle is a word very familiar to Murad Mollah. After struggling throughout life to ensure livelihood for his family members, now he lies on a bed at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital facing a struggle completely alien to him; it is his fight to stay alive.
With severe burn injuries to different body parts — his face, neck and upper torso — Murad Mollah, a bus driver’s assistant, is undergoing treatment at an emergency observation ward of the hospital.
He received his injuries when miscreants set fire to the bus he was asleep in at Jessore’s Khajura bus stand in the early hours yesterday.
“I was sleeping inside the bus. Before I went to sleep, I closed all the windows as it was cold outside. Suddenly, I woke up as I felt severe heat. After opening my eyes, the only thing I saw was flame. Then I just jumped off. I do not know what happened to me later,” said 20-year-old Murad, who hailed from Mohammadpur area of Magura.
Writhing in pain at the burn and plastic surgery unit of the DMCH, he struggled as spoke to this correspondent, taking almost 20 minutes to recollect the events that had forever changed his life.
Murad, son of rickshaw puller Sohar Mollah, could not say anything more as doctors had to put an oxygen mask on his face; only tears trickled down from his eyes as he suffered in silence.
Dr Kazi Imran, an emergency medical officer at the DMCH burn unit, said Murad had suffered burn wounds to almost 32% of his body.
“The respiratory system has been badly affected. It is hard to recover from such injury. But we are trying our best,” he said.
Mizanur Rahman, sub-inspector of Kotwali police station in Jessore, told the Dhaka Tribune that miscreants had set fire to the bus by pouring petrol around 4am yesterday when it was parked near Khajura bus stand in Jessore.
Reshma Sharmin, spokesperson for the Jessore police, said they arrested eight people so far for their alleged involvement in the arson attack.
Samad Mollah, elder brother of Murad, said: “If some people target us for their political interests, then where would the poor people like us would go?”
