Their only mistake was that they dared to go out onto the streets to earn for their families, defying a political strike.
During the 48-hour countrywide shutdown called by Jamaat-e-Islami, party activists targeted dozens of vehicles with firebombs and brickbats, leaving several drivers seriously injured, and at least one dead.
Three of the drivers one bus driver and two truckers are now fighting for their lives at the Burn and Plastic Surgery unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Doctors at the state-run hospital on Thursday said the patients were in all in critical conditions, with burns to 50-95% of their bodies.
Family members of the victims were seen waiting at the burns unit with vacant looks, as they have no one to support them or help with the treatment expenses.
“We have no other relatives to give us support, and I don’t know what to do with my two innocent daughters,” Sabina Begum, the wife of one of the victims, told the Dhaka Tribune at the hospital. She wailed, and shouted for capital punishment for the people who were responsible for harming her family.
Sabina’s husband, Mohammad Nazrul Islam Bhuiyan, 35, drives a passenger bus on the Azimpur-Gazipur route. As he was heading towards Azimpur in the capital on Wednesday morning, a group of hartal supporters suddenly stopped the crowded bus at the Gazipur bypass and set fire to it with a petrol bomb.
All the passengers on the VIP No. 27 bus managed to scramble out of the burning vehicle, but the driver was unable to leave quickly enough. He suffered burns to 65% of his body.
Another victim, truck driver Sekendar Bepari, 42, was on his way to Chittagong from Dhaka on Wednesday night to deliver three power generators. After he stopped for a rest at Chouddogram in Comilla, around 40 pro-hartal activists attacked his truck and set it on fire. Bepari received burns to over 52% of his body before he could exit the vehicle.
While talking to this correspondent, his wife, Ruma Begum, fell to the floor and started sobbing.
“Why do problems like this only come to the door of poor people like us?” she cried. The couple has two school-going children, aged six and 10.
Another truck driver, Shamsur Rahman Samsu, 55, was going to Panchagarh from Shirajganj with a truck loaded with fertiliser. When he stopped for a break near the Bogra-Shahjahanpur road on Wednesday night, a group of hartal activists attacked the truck and set it ablaze.
His helper, Shahin, managed to get away from the burning truck. But Samsu, who tried to douse the flames, was overcomes by the flames. He is now in the intensive care unit with burn to 95% of his body.
His two wives, Golap Banu and Sabina Begum, were waiting outside the ICU door, worried about how they and their seven children would manage to survive if anything happened to Samsu.
Iqbal Ahmed, a doctor at the burn unit, said they were trying their best to treat the injured patients, who are all in critical conditions.
Also on Wednesday, Abu Naser, 45, an auto-rickshaw driver, died after he was attacked with sticks and brickbats by pro-hartal activists in the Talerchara area of Companiganj in Noakhali.
