Schoolboy Monir Hossain, who lives in Kaliakoir of Gazipur, had long wished to visit Dhaka. After repeated requests, his father Ramzan Ali, a covered van driver, took him to the capital on Saturday.
But who would know Monir’s long-cherished dream would be shattered by political violence?
Like many innocent people, Monir, a student of class V at a local primary school, has become a victim of political violence. He suffered appalling burns after pickets set fire to the covered van he was sitting in Gazipur Chourasta area on Monday, the first day of the 60-hour countrywide hartal enforced by the BNP-led alliance.
He is fighting a grim battle for life at the burn unit in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Ramzan Ali said that he had taken his son to Dhaka to fulfill his wishes.
‘We spent a day in Dhaka and stayed here overnight before starting for Gazipur on Sunday after delivering some plastic goods to traders and loading the van with cosmetics,’ he said.
Ramzan said that after reaching Gazipur on Monday morning, he parked the van at the intersection, to see the situation as the hartal had already begun.
He asked his son to wait in the van before he went to see the situation on the highway.
The tragedy struck after he left his son alone in the van. ‘My son was waiting inside when miscreants attacked and set the van on fire,’ he added.
Doctors at DMCH said Monir was not out of danger as nearly 100 per cent of his body was burnt.
In another arson attack on Sunday night, a passenger of a CNG-run auto-rickshaw was burnt to death.
The deceased was identified as Mustafizur Rahman Mukul, 35, purchasing officer of a private trading company.
Mustafiz, who came from Kushtia, succumbed to burn injuries at DMCH around 9:45am Monday.
Two others, including the driver of the three-wheeler, were also badly burnt in the attack.
The driver, Md Asad, 33, was undergoing treatment in DMCH. Doctors said his condition was critical.
Md Hasu Mia, 35, technician of the company, who also suffered burns, told New Age that they were returning to Savar’s Nabinagar from Nawabpur in Dhaka after buying raw materials for the company.
‘As our vehicle was approaching Cantonment Public School, a group of miscreants started attacking vehicles on the road with sticks. A bus in front of us escaped the attack and sped away. The pickets then targeted our vehicle. As we tried to escape the attack, they hurled a petrol bomb at the three-wheeler and it was in flames,’ recalled Hasu Mia.
Hasu alleged that locals, including some army personnel standing nearby, watched the horrendous incident as passive onlookers.
Wailing over the body at DMCH, the victim’s wife Bina said, ‘Why they killed my husband? What was his fault?
In a similar incident, an elderly woman and her granddaughter suffered burns when a bus was torched by pro-hartal pickets in Gazipur Chourasta area on Sunday evening.
Lying in the bed in DMCH, the woman, Rahima Begum, 55, said they were going to her son-in-law’s house at Uttra sector-4 when the arson was carried out.
‘We were feeling sleepy as the bus reached the Chourasta area. Sudden, we heard the co-passengers scream ‘fire! fire!’ All the passengers left the bus. But my granddaughter, eight-year-old Sumi hid herself under the seat out of fear,’ said Rahima.
As Rahima tried to rescue her granddaughter, the fire engulfed the bus and they both were burnt.
Sumi, a student of class I, who is also taking treatment in DMCH, is yet to recover from the trauma. She said she had been preparing for her final examinations which would start in a few days.
Partha Shankar Pal, residential surgeon at the DMCH burn and plastic surgery department, told New Age that at least 30 patients, who had sustained burn injuries in bomb attacks or torching of vehicles, had been admitted to the burn unit since October 25.
Of them, one victim died on Monday morning and the conditions of two others were critical, said Partha.
When asked two days ago, the inspector general of police, Hassan Mahmood Khandker, told New Age that they had intensified vigilance and would do everything within the frame of law to ensure the security of people. (source)