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Parked Bus Set Ablaze

Teenage helper charred; dies

Staff Correspondent
It was not until firemen had doused the fire that they realised a person was inside when blockaders torched the bus in the capital's Sayedabad yesterday morning.
He was merely a boy, still alive but blackened and hardly recognisable, lying on the black burnt mess of the backseat, said Khondoker Abdur Jolil, senior station officer of Postogola Fire Station.
The synthetic foam-seat had instantly caught fire and engulfed the boy in the sticky molten stuff, he said, adding, "The boy was breathing heavily but barely awake ... he might have gone into a state of unconsciousness straight from sleep," said Jolil.
The boy, Hasan, 17, died at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) at 6:50pm yesterday, after going through hours of excruciating pain, burn expert Samanta Lal Sen told The Daily Star.
Around 9:00am, blockade supporters set the bus alight at Janapath
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intersection. At the time, its helper Hasan was sleeping inside the vehicle. He sustained 90 percent body burns.
This was almost the exact replay of what happened to teenager Monir a month ago. Prohartal pickets had burnt the 14-year-old alive while he was asleep in his father's covered van parked near Gazipur intersection. With 90 percent burns, Monir died at DMCH three days later.
Hasan is the 14th victim, including two more in Chittagong, to die in arson attacks since the latest spell of opposition agitation demanding a non-party caretaker government began on October 26.
"I don't understand. The bus had remained parked since last Friday and we did not defy the blockade. Then why this poor boy had to go through this hell?" manager of the burnt bus Salauddin cried out in rage while talking to this correspondent.
Lying on his intensive care unit bed, Hasan made no sound except for asking for water every 10 minutes. He did not open his eyes the whole time.
However, every now and then he feebly arched his back and banged his bandaged
hands against the bed, trying to dispel his pain.
Hasan used to be a conductor on long-haul buses on the Dhaka-Chittagong route. His mother Hasina Begum, a garment worker, lives in Azam Colony in Chittagong. His father left the family when Hasan was barely 10.
The grieving mother was on her way to DMCH, as of filing this report last night, hoping to see her son alive. The hope was, however, dashed since Hasan expired before her arrival.
Meanwhile in Chittagong, another CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver fell prey to an arson attack and sustained 35 percent burns yesterday.
Since the blockade started on Saturday, Khorshed Alam, 50, did not bring his vehicle out on the streets in fear of violence and arson attacks. But yesterday he had to because he had no other way of managing a family of seven.
Around 7:30am, when he reached CNB area under Chandgaon Police Station with two passengers, six to seven youths hurled brick chips at his vehicle.
As he stopped, the attackers splashed flammable liquid on the vehicle and the driver and set both ablaze. The passengers managed to
escape the flames.
"I begged them not to destroy the autorickshaw, as it was the only source of income for my family. They did not listen. Instead, they sprayed some liquid on me and set me on fire," said driver Khorshed.
Locals and police rushed him to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
Khorshed's wife Shamsunnahar is totally at a loss after the incident. She was found lamenting, "How will I manage his [her husband's] treatment and sustain the family now? All our savings have been exhausted in the last five days'blockade."
Meanwhile, two more victims of the Shahbagh bus arson - AbuTalha and Rahajul, who sustained 30 and 20 percent burns respectively - had to be moved to the DMCH ICU as their condition deteriorated.
Nurunnabi, an assistant sub-inspector posted at Rajarbagh Police Lines, Dhaka, who had received 35 percent burns in the same incident, is slowly improving, according to his daughter Rakhi.
Another victim of the arson attack, Geeta Sen, who sustained 11 percent burns, was discharged from the hospital yesterday.