Family on verge of starvation
Shomrat Shajahan Shaju, 30, a rickshaw-puller who lives in Kalyanpur slum with his wife and two daughters, came to Dhaka city from Bhola, like many others, to survive and feed his family a three-square meal per day.
On Sunday evening, Shaju and three others from his slum, Pora Bosti no 8, were sitting by a fire on a cold winter evening when four policemen approached and took them to a tin shanty and shot off the big toe of his left foot after he had jostled with them while trying to resist their attempts to snatch Tk 100 from him and his mobile phone.
Shaju, now lying on the hospital bed of the capital's Galaxy General Hospital, could only think of how he would be able to feed his family. One of his daughters is six-month old. "I am the only earning member of my family," he lamented.
Mirpur police admitted him to the hospital and said that they would bear the treatment cost.
Asked what actions were taken against the cop who shot Shaju, Maruf Hossain Sarder, deputy commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), said an assistant commissioner of Public Order Management division of DMP was asked to probe into the matter. Actions will be taken after the completion of the probe.
Seeing that Shaju would not give up his phone or money, the policemen dragged the four of them to a nearby office of Bangabandhu Sainik League ward no 11, where four other cops were waiting inside.
"They went through our pockets and took Tk 1,200 from one of my neighbours. As they reached for the Tk 100 note I had, I grabbed hold of it tightly and held my mobile phone with the other," Shaju said.
"The beating with rifle butts and cursing started, the moment they took us in and locked the door," he said, adding, "soon afterwards, one of them held my left foot with one hand and shot at my foot with a shotgun."
Shaju said he tried to free his foot with all his might and gave a sudden pull just in time so that the bullet could hit his big toe only. "It could have been much worse if the bullet had hit my foot," he said.
Hearing the gunfire, hundreds of the residents of the slum gathered in front of the tin shanty within a few minutes and asked the cops to open the door. They started hurling bricks and eventually broke in, and found Shaju bleeding profusely, said an eyewitness and took Shaju to a hospital at Mohammadpur, from where Sub-inspector of Mirpur Police Station Palash Ahmed took him to the Galaxy General Hospital.
Ajit Roy, sub-inspector, Mirpur Police who was on-duty nearby reached the place and rescued the five cops, who by that time were surrounded by an angry mob.
He told The Daily Star that Rezvi, the alleged shooter, joined the Public Order Management (POM), Mirpur as a police constable, just a month ago and was on duty that day with four others.
The SI said that Rezvi told that him it was a misfire; he did not intend to shoot Shaju.
Comments