Khadiza returns home
On her return home yesterday after being treated at hospitals in Dhaka and Savar for more than four months, college student Khadiza Begum Nargis has expressed her desire to start her studies again as soon as possible.
Her relatives who had gathered at her house in Sylhet Sadar from faraway villages gave her a warm reception.
Talking to The Daily Star, her father Mashuk Miah said Khadiza's return was significant as she has “beaten all the odds” to make a recovery from her critical wounds.
"People are happy to see Khadiza. Khadiza has told us that she would start her study soon,” he said after the girl went back to her village, Hausha.
Her brother Shahin Ahmed took her to their home from Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) in Savar.
Syed Uddin Helal, chief physician of medical services at the CRP, said Khadiza could easily walk, talk and do household chores.
"I am now well,” Khadiza told journalists before leaving the CRP, reports our Savar correspondent.
Khadiza was in a coma when she was brought to the Square Hospitals in Dhaka on October 3 last year. She was brutally hacked by Badrul Alam with a machete on the campus of MC College on the day. The 23-year-old girl had gone there to sit for an examination.
The injuries inflicted on her by Badrul, a fourth-year student of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (Sust) and also a senior assistant secretary of Chhatra League Sust unit, were severe that even the doctors said they were not sure whether Khadiza would survive.
"We are very impressed and surprised at her quick recovery,” Rejaus Satter, consultant neurosurgeon at the Square Hospitals, who conducted surgeries on her, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Over one and a half months past the brutal attack, Khadiza, a student of Sylhet Government Women's College, was taken to the CRP so that she could regain strength in her limbs.
Her brother Shahin, a final-year medical student studying in China, said Khadiza could walk without help and talk like a normal person, but it would take some time and more therapies for her to be able to fully recover.
“She can't properly use the fingers on her left hand yet. Her overall movement is also slow, but she will recover more with physiotherapy,” he said.
On November 8, police pressed charges of attempted murder against Badrul.
“I hope the perpetrator will be given an exemplary punishment so that others don't dare do anything like this again,” said Khadiza's father Mashuk, adding that her daughter would testify in court tomorrow against Badrul.