Burnt for no offence

Driver of a pick-up van sustained severe burn injuries when pro-hartal activists set the vehicle on fire at the capital's Nayabazar area on Monday night.
Md Khokan, 28, is now fighting for life at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with burns to 27 percent of his body, including his limbs and back.
While speaking to the correspondent from his hospital bed, Khokan said he was heading towards Babubazar with Monju Sikder, owner of the van, after delivering some goods at Narayanganj, when a steel push-cart rolled in front of the vehicle.
Two young men jumped from the cart and demanded to know why he had brought the van out during hartal. At one point they hurled abuses at them, flung liquid fuel on the vehicle and struck a match stick.
Though Sikder managed to escape unhurt, Khokan was not that lucky. Sikder rushed him to DMCH Burn Unit.
Fire service later brought the blaze under control, though the vehicle was almost destroyed.
Meanwhile, 18-party alliance activists set a CNG-run auto rickshaw ablaze at Hemayetpur of Savar around 12:30pm during the countrywide road blockade on Sunday.
When the activists threw liquid fuel on the auto rickshaw, all the four passengers quickly got off the vehicle but its driver Shahadat Hossain, 20, could not escape the flames.
He is undergoing treatment at DMCH Burn Unit with six percent of his body burnt, including his face, arms and legs.