People the victims again

Arif, 3, the son of auto rickshaw driver Sabed Ali, top, cries his heart out after seeing his father burnt and bandaged at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Alleged opposition activists hurled a petrol bomb at Sabed’s vehicle in front of Eastern Plaza during the opposition enforced nationwide blockade yesterday. Photo: Amran Hossain

When Aleya entered the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital to see her husband yesterday, her first glance of the burnt, peeling face sent her crashing to the floor with a piercing scream.
Her three-year-old son Arif, who accompanied her, wailed and ran out of the room. He could not be persuaded to come near his father for hours. His father Sabed Ali, burnt by arsonists inside the CNG-run auto-rickshaw he was driving, kept trying to draw Arif to him in vain.
“Why did they burn my face? Why can’t they fight among themselves?” he cried out, shivering with the pain of having 15 percent of his body burnt.
His vehicle was hit with a petrol bomb in front of the capital’s Eastern Plaza in the afternoon. The synthetic shirt he was wearing automatically caught fire, setting him alight. The flesh on his left hand melted to the bone.
Sabed, 33, said his passenger brought him to the DMCH. The passenger escaped unhurt as he already got out of the vehicle and was paying him when the attack came.
“This is a blockade, not a hartal. Then why can’t we be on the streets?” Sabed told The Daily Star.
A similar attack came on Rubel, another burnt CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver of Comilla, the day before the blockade began. “I can even accept it when we are not allowed to go out during hartals. But why are we not allowed to go out on the other days? How do we live?” gasped out Rubel, lying in the DMCH burn unit.
He was attacked around 7:00pm on Monday (that is 11 hours before the blockade “officially” began) on his way home through Comilla Biswa Road. One picket first charged the vehicle with a bamboo stick, overturning it. He was thus trapped inside, and the picket threw a petrol bomb on his auto-rickshaw.
“A passerby opened the door and hauled me out,” he said.
His wife Nasima Begum said, “When I first got the news, I thought he was dead. I am happy that my worst fear did not come true, but now I am crying because I do not have a single taka on me…. How do I buy medicine?”
Rubel had been prescribed at least three injections, among other medicines, but Nasima only had the money to buy one, which cost her Tk 1,100. Some of these have to be given daily.
The helpless woman is completely alone in a city she does not know. “Rubel has no brother and no relative. I do not know where the money will come from.”
Around 9:00pm, a human hauler driver was brought in from Madartek with 60 percent burns.
As Mozammel Haque, 19, was wheeled into the operation theater, his 12-year-old helper, Noman, stared with glassy eyes.
“I saw him burning inside. They held the door and did not let him out,” said Noman, his face to the floor, shuffling his bare feet. He lost his shoes somewhere in the chaos.
Pickets, posing as passengers, asked Mozammel to stop. When he did, they threw a petrol bomb inside the front compartment. One rammed the door shut with his body, preventing Mozammel from escaping.
He could only be pulled out when the pickets left. Noman was at the back and jumped out when the vehicle was set aflame.
“There were 10 to 12 passengers inside…they wanted to kill us all,” Noman said.
Another CNG driver was brought to the DMCH with 15 percent burns.
Nizamuddin, 40, was carrying passengers to Rajarbagh in the capital when four pro-blockade men surrounded his vehicle.
“They doused my vehicle with petrol and set me on fire,” said Nizamuddin. The passengers escaped unhurt and helped him out.

Seven-year-old Rakib at DMCH

Earlier around 4:00pm, Anwara Begum was brought to the DMCH with her head wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth. The 42-year-old was hit in the head by a cocktail thrown from a rally in Shantinagar.
Her skull cracked, leaving a gaping hole the size of a fist.
Chances of her survival are slim, doctors said.
A cook at a bank in Malibagh, Anwara was on way home from work when she was attacked, said her nephew, Rony.
Meanwhile in Chandpur, a seven-year-old boy sustained burn injuries as he was caught up in a clash between the Awami League and BNP supporters.
Rakib, the victim, was watching television in a shop when warring factions of the two archrivals aimed their anger at the boy, who had nothing to do with the fight.
“A man called Sharif took up a stick to hit Bacchu. In response, Bacchu picked up the kettle of boiling tea and flung it at me,” said the boy, who sustained 15 percent burns and is now being treated at the DMCH.
Sharif is a local AL supporter and Bacchu is with the BNP, said Rakib’s mother, Lucky Begum.
Previously, at least 19 children were affected by hartal violence, with two dead, including 14-year-old Monir who had been burnt by arsonists on November 4.