& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Brutality beyond belief

Two kids, CNG driver left to cling on to their lives as mindless hartal pickets set vehicles on fire

Shaheen Mollah andZYMA Islam
Monir is 14-year-old. Sumi is eight. Both live outside Dhaka. They came to see the capital and got critically injured in arson by pickets. The two kids are among the seven who fell victim to hartal violence from Sunday night till yesterday.
At least 50 of those killed and more than a
hundred of those wounded in attacks by pickets this year were not involved with any political party.
The recent series of attacks and blasts on innocents, especially the pain and suffering of the two kids, prompted The Daily Star to ask two major political leaders a question: how would they have felt about it all if they had not been
politicians?
Both the leaders condemned the activities like any other ordinary citizens and fathers.
When it came to taking responsibility of these incidents - of Monir's pathetic state where he is hanging between life and death - the two big shots came up with same old political rhetoric
and blame-game.
Asked what would be his reaction if his child was burnt in front of him, like what happened to Monir in front of his father, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, "There is no doubt that such incident is very unfortunate. We definitely condemn such heinous activities."
Asked what they gain from such violent politics, Fakhrul said they enforce hartal not out of joy, but to ensure people's voting rights. “We don't have alternative."
He claimed the opposition was not involved in setting fire to vehicles or throwing petrol bombs on any individual. "It's the government agents who carry out such activities to defame our peaceful hartal."
Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said, "To any father, his child is the dearest of any other things in the world. Nothing can be more sorrowful than the killing of a child in front of a father, whoever he may be. The body of a son is the heaviest thing on a father's shoulders."
Demanding exemplary punishment to the culprits, he said, "As a father I have no words to express my feelings about this horrific incident."
The AL leader said cadres of BNP-Jamaat, which has called the "illogical hartal", were responsible for the arson.
About BNP acting secretary general's comments, Hanif said the arsons were launched by the "criminals of BNP-Jamaat" at the directives of Fakhrul to create panic among people who do not support hartal.
"Such incidents will make people hate politics," he added.
DHAKA TRIP, DHAKA TRAP
Monir, who was battling death with over 95 percent burns last night, had begged to his father to bring him to Dhaka.
“This was his first time in the city," said Ramjan Ali, a covered-van driver from Gazipur. He along with his son came to the capital for business on Saturday and was on his way back when the arson took place on the Dhaka-Gazipur highway yesterday.
"It was 9:00am, and we were just a few kilometres away from home. Sensing trouble ahead, I parked my van and asked Monir to wait inside. I went out to check if it was safe to drive on," he said.
Little did he know picketers would spot the vehicle and set it alight.
Locals and police pulled out the burning child and doused him with water. He was first whisked off to Tongi Hospital and thentoDMCH.
"I have not told his mother yet ... she will have a fit," said Ramjan.
DMCH sources said there was little hope for Monir's survival. But none had the heart to tell Ramjan that he should call his wife immediately if she were to see her son alive for one last time.
The boy was conscious and writhing in pain, Dr Samanta Lal Sen, project director of the DMCH burn unit, told The Daily Star around 11:30pm.
" It is difficult to say if he will last the night - but he is in unimaginable pain. His windpipe has been burnt and every breath he takes is through excruciating pain," he said.
Dr Sen, who is almost on the verge of retiring from his career, went on to say that he has never seen a case this bad in his life.
who travelled all the way from Netrakona on Sunday to visit her cousin sister in Uttara, is fully aware of her wounds.
The pain from the 13 percent burns she has suffered was far more than what a child could bear. But the brave little girl didn't cry out even for once. She was murmuring "Ma" over and over again through her swollen lips.
Her mother is in Netrakona, unable to rush to her daughter because of the hartal, said Sumi's maternal grandmother.
Around 7:00pm Sunday, at Gazipur Chourasta, the little girl faced the worst nightmare of her life as picketers torched the bus she was in.
"Someone pulled me out, cut through my clothes and poured water on me," said Sumi.
Sumi's parental grandmother was also injured in the attack. She suffered 15 per-cent burns.
Sumi's father, a fisherman, will not be able to bear the costs of the expensive treatment.
In a hall near Sumi's ward, the body of Mostafizur Rahman Mukul, 35, was lying on a stretcher. His wife was crying her heart out.
Mukul died from 60 percent burns around 10:30am yesterday, 12 hours after miscreants hurled a petrol bomb on the auto-rickshaw he was riding in Savar.
His elder daughter Mahi, 5, was waiting with dinner for her father on Sunday night, her uncle Biplob said yesterday. "She waited till 11:00pm before falling asleep without having dinner. ”
Younger daughter Moushumi, 3, had stayed awake almost the entire night, and was seen dropping off to sleep in a hospital bench yesterday morning. Mahi was left home.
Neither of the daughters knew their father was never coming back.
Asad Gazi, 40, was admitted to the DMCH burn unit yesterday. An autorickshaw driver, he suffered burns after criminals hurled a crude bomb at him in Savar on the hartal eve Sunday night.
At the end of last month, during the 60-hour hartal enforced by the 18-party opposition coalition, six children were injured, and one died.
Murad, 10 and Rahima, 9, from the capital, Rony, 7, and Milton, 8, of Bogra, and Sumon, 16, of Jhalakathi, had got themselves critically injured after picking up unexploded cocktails strewn about public places by pickets.
All of the children thought the red objects were toys.
Murad's father said yesterday that nearly a week has passed since the fateful day when his son picked up a bomb, but the boy still screams in pain throughout the day. Doctors said the fingers of his left hand might need amputation if the condition deteriorates.
Rahima has become blind in the right eye; the other one is about to lose vision.
Several hartal victims complained that they have received little help from the government, a clear contradiction to a promise made by Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque on October 31.
Addressing the press during a visit to DMCH, he pledged that the government would bear all expenses of hartal victims.
Murad’s father added he was paying his way through the treatment of his son. He just gets the bed for free.
"No one extends help to those civilians who are caught up in hartal blasts - no one even bothers to offer an apology," said rights activist Shaheen Anam.
She went on to say that only the hartal victims with political affiliations get attention, that too because their deaths and injuries can be used politically.
"Hartals violate citizen rights ... Most of us have to be outside at least to go to work."
Furthermore, hartals violate children's right to education - schools are forcibly closed down, she said. "Not to mention more direct effects when children end up being injured or dead."
Shaheen Anam added if the civil society tries to oppose the hartals - any hartals, given by any parties - they are labelled as belonging to the opposition. "Why does the society have to be bi-polar? Why cannot there be neutral people who just want to oppose hartal because it violates some of our most fundamental rights?" she asked.
ASM Shahjahan, former inspector general of police, told The Daily Star yesterday that the culture of violence during hartals grew because politicians know they are immune from the law.
"Sometimes cases are lodged in these connections. But more often the cases fail to accuse any identifiable criminal. Even more often, the cases are made to be dropped because they can easily be labelled as politically motivated. Thus the criminals enjoy impunity," said Shahjahan.
However, these are crimes and need to be treated as such, he added.
'What is morally wrong cannot be politically correct," said Shahjahan. He encouraged ordinary citizens and civil society to stand up against hartal violence.