All of 22-year-old Rashed’s bags were packed and he was ready to fly to Qatar on a plane at 10pm today, hoping to get a sizable job in the oil rich Middle Eastern country and change his peasant family’s fortune for good.
Around 4am yesterday, he was heading towards Dhaka on a bus of the Icon Paribahan from his village home in Cox’s Bazar. A number of his relatives were accompanying him to see him off at the Shahjalal airport.
He must have been dreaming about the things that he should have had on his checklist of doable after he gets on to the plane and arrives in Qatar.
But when this report was being filed around 10pm yesterday, exactly 24 hours before he would have been getting on board the flight, Rashed was lying on a bed at the burn unit of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, writhing in pain.
Around 80% of his body has been burnt in a fire caused by a petrol bomb that was hurled at the bus on the Dhaka-Comilla Highway.
Heavily sedated for some relief from the excruciating pain, Rashed was lying there mostly unconscious. But in momentary fits of delirium, he was still heading towards the airport.
“Where is my passport? It is time for my flight. I have to go,” he would mutter for a few seconds and then fall unconscious again.
If he ever regains full consciousness, he will see that Yusuf, one of his uncles who was coming with him, has been killed in the fire that left 9% of his other uncle Hanif’s body burnt.
Rashed used to do farming at their Sahachanda village in Chokoria upazila in Cox’s Bazar district. He was the elder among two siblings. He recently got the visa to fly to Qatar.
The Dhaka Tribune reporter caught up with his cousin Jakaria Hossain outside the DMCH burnt unit yesterday.
“During the accident, all of Rashed’s passport and documents were lost. But what would he do with them now? Will he be able to fly to Qatar ever?” Jakaria, who also suffered a bit of burn in the attack, said in exasperation.
The petrol bomb attack left seven people including Yusuf dead on the spot and 16 others including Rashed critically injured, six of whom are currently undergoing treatment at the DMCH burn institute.
On the bed right next to Rashed was lying Jilkad, 17, with 20% burn injuries that he had sustained in the same attack.
Along with three of his friends, he was coming back to Dhaka after an eight-day trip to Cox’s Bazar.
Jilkad, son of cow trader Jahirul Islam, lived with his parents and younger brother Akram, a fifth grader.
“I have already spent Tk3.45 lakh for sending Jilkad to Saudi Arabia. He was supposed to face a visa interview today. Before flying abroad, he wanted to spend some fun time with his friends. So they went to Cox’s Bazar. Who would have ever thought he would end up in the hospital,” said Jahirul, weeping.
Jilkat’s friend Faruq Ahmed, hailing from the same village, suffered 2% burns and was lying on the next bed.
“I was in one of the seats in the middle of the bus. When pickets hurled the bomb, the whole bus caught fire quickly. I managed to get out of the bus unhurt, but Jilkad suffered burns before he could jump out of a window. My hands got burnt when I tried to put off the fire in Jilkad’s body,” Faruq said.
In the same incident, Arif Shikder, father of a 3-year-old boy from Faridpur, suffered 10% burn.
Arif’s brother Sujon told this correspondent: “A couple of days ago, our brother Sajib left home saying he would go to Malaysia from Cox’s Bazar. But we lost contact him since. After we saw some news that a boat carrying people to Malaysia fell in accident, we got worried. Then our elder brother Arif went to Cox’s Bazar in search of Sajib. But failing to track him, Arif was coming back home.”
When this reporter was talking to these burn victims from the Comilla petrol bomb attack, Kamal Hossain, who suffered major burns in a similar attack in Lakshmipur on Monday, succumbed to his injuries.
His brother Shahjahan Miah said: “Kamal’s wife does not yet know that her husband got burnt. I do not know how I will tell her about his death. They have three-year-old child.”
With the inclusion of two more people who received burns in a petrol bomb attack on a running train in Gazipur, the number of victims undergoing treatment at the DMCH burn institute stood at 61 yesterday.
Since the blockade began on January 6, a total of 111 people got treated at the burn institute. Of them, eight died while undergoing treatment.
At present, seven critical patients are being given treatment at the intensive care unit and eight at the high dependency unit.
