Tragic tale of a trucker

Barely six months ago, Bakul Chandra Devnath's family came out of financial hardship and began dreaming of a better life.

Bakul, a trucker for about 16 years, and his partner last year paid off the loan they took to buy a truck in 2011.

He was earning around Tk 1,000 a day. He got his five-year-old son admitted to a school at Osmaninagar of Sylhet, his home town.

With his wife expecting a second child, the 35-year-old man was working hard for a better future of the family.

But it's all gone now.

An arson attack took his life, leaving his wife and child in total uncertainly.

Bakul, the bread earner of the family, died from burns at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday.

“He had been driving trucks since he was 19. He started empty-handed, but with honesty and hard labour he became solvent recently. How can I accept such death?” Bakul's elder brother Rantu Devnath told this correspondent at the DMCH.

Apart from his own family, Bakul was also taking care of Rantu's three daughters, said the victim's brother.

Bakul suffered burns when suspected blockaders hurled petrol bombs at his stone-laden truck on Sylhet-Tamabil highway at Goainghat in the early hours of January 21.

He then lost control of the vehicle, and it hit a roadside tree. He broke his left leg, said his helper Kibria, who was also in the truck.

With 25 percent burns on his body, Bakul was taken to Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital.

As his condition worsened, he was shifted to the DMCH burn unit on January 23, and died around 7:00am yesterday, said hospital sources.

Bakul couldn't utter a word while being treated at the ICU. His wife Nilima Rani couldn't visit him as she is six months' pregnant, said Rantu.

Victim's partner Swapan said, “Bakul was extremely cautious while driving vehicles amid the blockade. Yet he couldn't escape political violence.”

After an autopsy at Dhaka Medical College morgue, his body was handed over to his family members yesterday.

Including Bakul, six arson victims have died so far at the DMCH burn unit. One of them was pronounced dead upon arrival.

The hospital treated 32 arson victims since the BNP-led alliance's blockade began on January 6.

At least 46 arson victims are now under treatment. Of them, six are in a critical condition.

The hospital released two arson victims yesterday, said Partha Sankar Paul, resident medical officer at the burn unit.