Arson takes another life

Seven-year-old Belal lies in bed with injuries to his forehead while his mother wails at Chittagong Medical College Hospital yesterday. The boy was hurt as blockaders exploded crude bombs in Agrabad area of the port city. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

One more life was lost as a retired madrasa teacher, who had received burn injuries at Badarpur in Patuakhali on Saturday, died at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday.
Sexagenarian Abdus Sattar, father of a son and four daughters, suffered burns to 68 percent of his body when blockaders set fire to the battery-powered auto-rickshaw he was riding on his way home.
The teacher of Pangasia Nesaria Kamil Madrasa was shifted to DMCH from a local hospital on Sunday evening. He was declared dead at around 9:30pm yesterday.

Easy bike driver Swapan at Khulna Medical College Hospital yesterday. He suffered burns when pickets set fire to his three-wheeler on Monday night. Photo: Focus Bangla/Palash Khan

With Sattar, 10 of the people who had come under arson attacks during hartals and blockades since October 26 have succumbed to their injuries. Thirty-two others were taking treatment, said Partha Shankar Pal, resident surgeon of the DMCH burn unit.

Dipu Akhtar nursing her brother Amzad, one of the victims of Shahbagh bus arson, at DMCH burn unit yesterday. Photo: Focus Bangla/Palash Khan

Sattar's son Abdul Hakim demanded that those responsible for his father's death be brought to book. "My father was never involved in politics. Why would he be killed in political violence?” he told our Patuakhali correspondent.
The surgeon said six victims are in critical condition at the intensive care unit. Of them, Dhaka College student Wahidur Rahman Babu, who was injured when a bus was torched at Shahbagh on Thursday, is unlikely to survive. He has been put on life support.
Babu's elder brother Mujibur Rahman Rubel was pacing the ICU corridor up and down restlessly.
"My mother has been ill since my father was kidnapped two and a half years ago. God knows how she will react if something happens to Babu," he said, his eyes welling up with tears.
"What would have they done had

their children or dear ones been burnt? It's my question to the conscience of those who have burnt my brother and others."

the body of Abdus Sattar, a madrasa teacher who died at DMCH yesterday. Sattar was severely burned in Patuakhali on Saturday when blockaders torched the battery-run auto-rickshaw he was in. Photo: Focus Bangla/Palash Khan

Nasima Begum, wife of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver from Comilla, was seen begging everyone at the High Dependency Unit for blood because his husband needs it for eight days.
"I have no relatives in Dhaka. I don't have the money to buy him food. How will I manage blood?" she told this correspondent wailing.
“I will not be able to save my husband only because of blood. What will happen to me and my kids?"
Mahbub Hasan, driver of the Bihanga Paribahan bus that was set on fire at Shahbagh, was seen eating rice with lentils. He said, "It hurts when I eat such food. But I have no money to buy quality liquid food.”
In Chittagong, a seven-year-old received shrapnel wounds to the forehead when an unidentified man hurled a crude bomb at a group of kids in the port city's Saraipara area yesterday.
"Belal was playing with his playmates near the house. Someone hurled an object that exploded with a bang and injured my son," said his father.