Yet another child has fallen victim to a cocktail blast in the capital yesterday. This brings the total number of children’s casualties to seven, including one dead in growing political tension of the last six days.
Aged about 10, third grader Murad Hossain picked up what he thought to be a tennis ball wrapped with red scotch tape, a technique used widely to make it a substitute for a much heavier cricket ball.
The coveted “toy” blasted in his hands at Panthapath intersection around 1:00pm, leaving the child screaming in agony.
The homemade bomb was lying on the road divider, in all possibility left there by political activists during recent hartals.
Murad was taken immediately to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. After primary treatment there, he was shifted to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Research (NITOR).
Visiting the hospital, this correspondent found the victim’s mother Rozina, a garment worker, sat shocked and speechless. She could only pray so that her son’s hands would be spared from amputation.
His hands might be spared from amputation, but a few fingers might not, said physicians at NITOR.
A student at Rotary Govt Primary School, Murad on Fridays used to work as a conductor of a pick-up van without letting his parents know.
The incident occurred when he was on duty in a New Market bound vehicle.
Roused to fury by such an incident, Murad’s father Mohammad Jamal said, “Let them [political activists] rally on the streets as much as they want to, but why they leave cocktails so carelessly? My son is about to become crippled just because of somebody’s carelessness.”
Like Murad, nine-year-old Rahima in the capital’s Jurain, Rony, 7, and Milton, 8, of Bogra, and Sumon, 16, of Jhalakathi, had got themselves critically injured over the last six days since October 27 after picking up unexploded cocktails. All of them thought that the attractive red objects were toys.
A kid was shot dead in Chandpur and another was injured in Bogra when crude bombs were hurled at him.
The BNP-led 18-party opposition alliance enforced countrywide 60-hour hartal on October 27-29 demanding a non-party polls-time government.
During the shutdown, the city saw many incidents of vandalism, arson and cocktail blasts.
Source: The Daily Star
