Burnt in blockade arson

Family members stand close to truck helper Mujibur at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Opposition activists torched speech-impaired Mujibur's truck in Comilla yesterday. Photo: Anisur Rahman

A speech-impaired truck helper received burn injuries to the face, hands and thighs when pickets set his truck on fire at Debidwar in Comilla early yesterday, during the countrywide hartal enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami.
Victim Mujibur Rahman, 42, was going towards Companiganj of Comilla with the goods from the capital.
The attackers had hurled brick chips at the truck when it reached Baniapara-Phultola area. As soon as the driver pulled off, they set fire to the vehicle using flammable liquid around 4:30am.
Driver Abdur Rahman, 47, also sustained minor burn injuries. They both had been rushed to a local clinic.
However, after primary treatment, Mujibur was rushed to the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 12:30pm.
Talking to The Daily Star, resident surgeon of the burn unit Partha Shankar Paul said, "Though he sustained 20 percent burn, he is not out of danger, as fire damaged his respiratory organs."
Since the beginning of the opposition's latest spell of agitation on October 26, a total of 13 arson victims died. So far, some 124 victims have been treated at the DMCH burn unit. Of them, 72 had to be admitted to the hospital.
As of yesterday, 30 arson victims were undergoing treatment at the burn unit.
Of them, four victims had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit while eight others to High Dependency Unit.
Mujibur along with his family lives at Alambagh in the capital's Purba Jurain area. When he was brought to DMCH, his mother was seen waiting at the entrance of the burn unit, in tears.
"My wretched son lost speech to typhoid in his childhood. Now he is going through unbearable pain and can't even express that," the mother lamented.
"During the Liberation War he was just a few days old. We protected him from every possible danger. But they (pickets) burnt my son in the independent country," she said when this correspondent asked her about Mujibur's age.
Mujibur is the eldest among her four sons and a daughter.
He started serving as a helper in different transport companies when he was just a teenager. For not being able to speak, Mujibur never got to become a driver, said the mother.
A father of two daughters and a son, Mujibur had to agree to take the trip to feed his family and help his mother.
Tarik Mahamood Hannan, officer-in-charge of Debidwar Police Station, said they had detained two suspects in connection with the arson attack.