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Pre-hartal, Hartal Violence

2 more burn victims die

Shaheen Moliah Zyma Islam
Two more victims of arson during hartal died in the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital early' yesterday. This took the total number of innocent civilian casualties in the last 20 days to four.
The deceased are garment worker Nasima Begum, 30, and Abul Kashem, 50, a farmer from Feni.
Nasima was admitted to DMCH with 43 percent burns on October 26, on the eve of the first spell of 60-hour hartal enforced by the opposition alliance. She was retuning home by a bus when pickets attacked the vehicle full of garment workers in the capital's Beribadh area.
Her death once again brought
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to surface the ever-important question: "Why us when we have done no wrong?" This time the question was wailed by Nasima's mourning sister Rahima.
"My sister was not involved in politics, then why she had to die? Why it is her, not the politicians who caused the hartal?" cried out Rahima.
She (Nasima) was just coming home from work and that too not during hartal hours, but the day before, she added.
Nasima had writhed about in excruciating pain for seemingly endless nineteen days, before she finally gave up.
Yet her struggle began long ago, after her daughter's death, said Rahima.
"Five years ago, Nasima's husband married another woman following a miscarriage which made Nasima vety sick. She later joined a garment factory to become able to pay for her medical expense. Her physical condition was one of the reasons for which she could not escape from the burning bus. The sickness was also a reason for her to go to the factoty on the eve of the hartal," said the sister adding that she just could not afford to lose the job.
A few days ago, lying on the hospital bed Nasima had shared with The Daily Star her fear of
not being able to work anymore.
She said, "Even though I was sick, I could take care of myself before. Who will lookafter me now?"
Now her death has eliminated the need for having that question answered. But it revealed the degree of injustice she had faced throughout the last years of her life.
The other deceased, Abul Kashem, was brought to DMGH from Feni with 76 percent burns he had sustained Tuesday night, on the third day of the last opposition-sponsored hartal.
His son Rabiul Haque Kawsar wailed the same grievances on Wednesday as he blankly watched the father writhe about on the cold, hard hospital stretcher. Kashem was unable to lie down because his back was burnt, nor was he able to sit up, as he was too weak.
"Our father was just a farmer. He was on a rickshaw going to the market. Rickshaws are allowed during hartals, then why did they attack him with a petrol bomb?" he asked.
However, Feni police alleged that Kashem had been wounded making crude bombs and lodged a case in Phulgazi Police Station in this connection.
The morgue sources, on the other hand, confirmed that there were no splinter injuries on Kashem's body, as it is typical in case of a crude
bomb explosion. He had only sustained burn injuries and nothing else.
With the deaths of these two arson victims looming grimly as a probable future, there is increased fear about the other critical patients in DMCH.
Yet doctors and medical staff are trying their optimum to revive all the victims.
However, the injustice of it all is not lost to anyone.
Momtaz, mother of Al-Amin, helper of a human haulier that was torched in Hazaribagh on November 6, told The Daily Star, "Why does it have to be my son instead of those who do politics? I pray no other mother sees her child going through this."
Al-Amin with 30 percent burns had to be transferred to the intensive care unit after his condition deteriorated on Wednesday.
With 90 percent burns, Mantu Chandra Paul also hangs on the edge in the intensive care unit. Pickets had set alight a human haulier he was travelling by in Laxmibazar last Sunday.
"Who will take the responsibility of his state? Will it be the government or the opposition? " his brother-in-law asked The Daily Star.
His question heavily hangs unanswered like an elephant in the room.