Shot in 1971, bullet removed in 2014!

For the past 43 years, a woman has bearing a bullet in her body fired during the 1971 War of Liberation. Yesterday she said she was relieved as she finally got it removed after undergoing a surgery at Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

The 58-year-old Momena Bewa, a resident of Hatibandha upazila in Lalmonirhat, became talk of the town when doctors removed the bullet from her body after 43 years. A lot of people came to the hospital to meet her after her surgery. For the longest time, she has mistaken it for a tumour.

Recalling the horrors of 1971, the woman said she was 15 when war broke out. A bullet fired by the Pakistani forces at Taleb intersection area in Hatibandha hit her as she was escaping with her father.

She was given first aid by a village doctor, Abdul Gafur following the shooting and recovered temporarily. The bullet, however, remained in her body.

“At one stage, the war ended and the Pakistani forces left. We got an independent country but the bullet was not taken out of my body. I carried it for 43 long years,” she said.

Momena, the widow of Babar Ali from Maddha Gaddimari village of Hatibandha upazila, said she would often feel pain because of the bullet but could not afford better treatment because of financial constraints.

As she developed complications brought on by old age locals took her to Dr Bimal Chandra at Niramoy Clinic in Rangpur on April 7 who, after examination, discovered the bullet inside a wound on the left of her throat.

The bullet was removed yesterday as Momena underwent a surgery. She is now being treated at bed number 36 of ward number 16 on the third floor of the hospital.

Momena’s younger sister Monwara said her sister, would regularly take pain killers which were prescribed by village doctors whenever she would feel pain or soreness.

We had to borrow money for the surgery, she added.

Dr Bimal Chandra expressed optimism, saying the patient would recover completely as the bullet has been removed.