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Mother's blood on their hands

Son of blockade victim fumes at politicians

Staff Correspondent
Anwara Begum, who had her skull blown apart Tuesday night by a crude bomb hurled from a rally in the capital's Shantipur area, died early yesterday
The 42-year-old mother had to be given full-blown anaesthesia as doctors at Dhaka Medical College Hospital tried to piece her skull together. But they could not revive her.FROM PAGE 1
In the last 30 days, 18 people have lost their lives to violence on the streets they were not involved in.
Yesterday at the morgue, her daughter Nasima burst out in fury. "Give me the name of a single politician who lost his life in hartal violence!" she released all her anger at this correspondent.
"We know that the higher-level politicians are responsible for this. They are the ones who give orders. The blood of my mother is on their hands too," fumed Anwara's son Alam Kazi.
Sirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Khilgaon Police Station, said law enforcers had arrested two people in this connection.
The bomb was thrown at Anwara from a "pro-hartal" rally led by the main opposition BNP, alleged Alam Kazi, claiming that he had gone back to the spot and talked to the witnesses.
"The blockade not only took away my mother, but it also prevented my younger brother, who lives in Khulna, from seeing her alive for one last time," sobbed Alam Kazi.
Anwara always had the dream to pass the last days of her life with her grandchildren around, said her daughter Nasima.
"She always used to say that when her time comes, we lay her to rest at Rupsha in Khulna, where our father was buried 10 years ago. She used to see death as a reunion with the lost ones," she added.
With 60 percent burns, another victim Mozammel died early today.
Yesterday, he was seen screaming in pain at the intensive care unit of DMCH burn unit. His elder brother Sohel Mia had then said, "We lost our father during our childhood and my mother has almost gone blind over the last 10 years. And now I have my brother in unbearable agony due to arson."
The agony ended around 12:30am today.
Sohel told The Daily Star that he had taught Mozammel to drive six months ago.
"We used to drive the same human haulier, which was burnt, by rotation to manage the family expenses and treat our mother," said Sohel, adding that on the day of occurrence, he had driven the vehicle until 2:30pm and the arson took place around 8:00pm.
In the burn unit of DMCH, three-year-old Arif, who could not take the burnt face of his father and had run away, was seen sleeping beside him yesterday.
His father Sabed Ali, a CNG-run auto-
rickshaw driver, sustained 15 percent burns on Tuesday, the first day of opposition-sponsored countrywide blockade.
" He was asking me how his father got to this horrible state. When I said some people had set fire to him, he said he would beat up the ones responsible," said Aleya Khatun, mother of the boy.
Sabed Ali said: "I am a driver but I have always dreamt to send my kids to school and see them make careers. For this, I work hard all day. But now, I am incapable of work don't know what will happen to them?"
Sabed is the only breadwinner of his sevenmember family that includes his parents. On top of that, he has to pay a weekly instalment of Tk 500 for a loan he had taken from a nongovernmentorganisation.
"Who will look after the family now, let alone bear my medical expenses," added the day-earner.
Meanwhile in Chittagong, another person received severe burn injuries as pickets sprayed flammable liquid on him and set him alight yesterday, on the second day of the countrywide road, rail and waterway blockade.
Mohammad Abdul Alam, 32, proprietor of Gulshan Biriani House, sustained 22 percent burns.
With this, the total number of arson victims in political violence in the last one month rose to 37.
"It was around 9:45am. I was just getting off from a CNG-run auto-rickshaw in front of VIP Tower in the city to open my shop. I have never imagined that within a wink of an eye 1 would be in flames," said Abdul lying on a bed at Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
He said that since it was a blockade, not a hartal, he had set off to open his business like any other day.
"Is it my fault to go out on business on a blockade day? Why should we, the commoners, be the victim of politics?" he asked with a furious pair of eyes, adding that the politicians did not care at all about the people.