Shaheen still unconscious

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised the best possible treatment for the teen who was beaten up by a group of unidentified criminals in Satkhira’s Patkelghata upazila on Friday.

The driver Shaheen, 14, has been receiving treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) since Saturday.

Brig Gen AKM Nasir Uddin, director of DMCH, said PM’s Deputy Press Secretary Ashraful Alam Khokon visited the hospital early yesterday and enquired about Shaheen’s condition.

Khokon urged the doctors to ensure best possible treatment for Shaheen and said the PM would bear all the medical costs for the boy, he added.

The DMCH director also said, “Although Shaheen is doing slightly better now, we are unable to say anything clearly before 48 hours pass by.

“We already conducted a surgery on him around 1:00am [on Sunday] to remove a broken part of his skull that went inside his head.”

A seven-member medical board was also formed for him, the DMCH director said.

The hospital authorities are trying their best to provide Shaheen with best treatment. Shaheen’s family members were also getting accommodation and food facilities on the hospital premises, he added.

On Friday, Shaheen went out with his father’s battery-run three-wheeler to earn bread for his family. A group of four to five men hired the vehicle from Jashore’s Keshobpur upazila and headed towards nearby Satkhira’s Patkelghata upazila, said Shaheen’s father Haider Mondol, who could not work due to his illness.

On the way, the criminals asked Shaheen to stop beside a jute field. They beat him up until he lost consciousness and snatched the vehicle, he said, adding that he bought the three-wheeler with the money he took as loan from an NGO.

Seeing a blood smeared picture of Shaheen that went viral on social media, Naben Anan, a businessman in the capital’s Moghbazar area, sent Tk 8,000 to one of Shaheen’s relatives and urged them to take him to DMCH.

Using the money for ambulance fare, Shaheen’s family took him to DMCH around 10:00pm on Saturday. He previously received treatment at two local hospitals in Satkhira and Khulna.

He was admitted to the Incentive Care Unit of DMCH and stayed unconscious until this report was filed.