Arif, 3, the son of auto rickshaw driver Sabed Ali, top, cries his heart out after seeing his father burnt and bandaged at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Alleged opposition activists hurled a petrol bomb at Sabed’s vehicle in front of Eastern Plaza during the opposition enforced nationwide blockade yesterday. Photo: Amran Hossain
When Aleya entered the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital to see her husband burnt by arsonists yesterday, her first glance of the burnt, peeling face sent her crashing to the floor with a piercing scream.
Her three-year-old son Arif, who accompanied her, wailed and ran out of the room. He could not be persuaded to come near his father for hours afterwards.
His father Sabed Ali, burnt inside the CNG-run auto-rickshaw he was driving, kept making attempts to draw Arif to him in vain.
“Why did they burn my face? Why can’t they fight among themselves?” he cried out, shivering with the pain of having 15 percent of his body burnt.
His vehicle was hit with a petrol bomb in front of the capital’s Eastern Plaza in the afternoon. His synthetic shirt automatically caught fire, setting him alight. The flesh on his left hand melted to the bone.
Sabed, 33, told The Daily Star that his passenger brought him to the DMCH, while the police did not even after much pleading.
The passenger was unhurt as he already got out of the vehicle and was paying him when the attack came.
“This is a blockade, not a hartal. Then why can’t we be on the streets?” Sabed asked.
A similar attack came on Rubel, another burnt CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver of Comilla, the day before the blockade began.
“I can accept it when we are not allowed to go out during hartals. Why we are not allowed to go out on the other days? How do we live?” gasped out Rubel, lying in the DMCH burn unit.
He was attacked around 7:00pm on Monday on his way home through Comilla Biswa Road. One picket first charged the vehicle with a bamboo stick, overturning it. He was thus trapped inside, and the picket threw a petrol bomb on his auto-rickshaw.
“A passerby opened the door and hauled me out,” he said.
His wife Nasima Begum said, “When I first got the news, I thought he was dead. I am happy that my worst fear did not come true, but now I am crying because I do not have a single taka on me…. How do I buy the medicines?”
Rubel had been prescribed at least three injections among other medicines, but Nasima only had the money to buy one, which cost her Tk 1,100. Some of these have to be given daily.
The helpless woman is completely alone in a city she does not know. “Rubel has no brothers and no relatives. I do not know where the money will come from.”
Another CNG driver was brought to the DMCH with 15 percent burns.
Seven-year-old Rakib at DMCH
Nizamuddin, 40, was carrying passengers to Rajarbagh when four pro-blockade men surrounded his vehicle.
“They doused my vehicle with petrol and set me on fire,” said Nizamuddin. The passengers escaped and helped him out.
Meanwhile, Anwara Begum was wheeled into the DMCH with her head wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth around 4:00pm yesterday. The 42-year-old was hit in the head by a cocktail thrown from a rally in Shantinagar.
Her skull cracked, leaving a gaping hole the size of a fist.
A cook at a bank in Malibagh, Anwara was on way home from work, said her nephew, Rony.
Her chances of survival are slim, doctors said.
Meanwhile, a seven-year-old boy sustained burn injuries as he was caught up in a clash between the Awami League and BNP supporters in Chandpur.
Rakib, the victim, was watching television in a shop when warring factions of the two archrivals aimed their anger at the boy, who had nothing to do with the fight.
“A man called Sharif took up a stick to hit Bacchu. In response, Bacchu picked up the kettle of boiling tea and flung it at me,” said the boy, who sustained 15 percent burns and is now being treated at the DMCH.
Sharif is a local AL supporter and Bacchu is with the BNP, said Rakib’s mother, Lucky Begum.
Previously, at least 19 children were affected by hartal violence, with two dead, including 14-year-old Monir who had been burnt by arsonists on November 4.
Source: The Daily Star
