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Violence in Capital

Boy critically hurt in firing

Zyma Islam
Yet another child fell victim to the persisting political turmoil as violence escalated in the capital yesterday following the execution of war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah.
Shanto Islam, 11, turned up at the Casualty Ward of Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 4:00pm yesterday, with his head and back peppered with rubber bullets.
Shanto had 73 pellets in his body, claimed his father quoting doctors. He got shot during a clash between police and Jamaat activists in the capital's Motijheel area.
At least 10 others were admitted to the DMCH yesterday with rubber bullet wounds.
Third grader Shanto was in the city to visit his father, who runs a tea-stall at Fakirerpool.
"We live in Narayanganj. We came to Dhaka to be with his father as Shanto's exams were over," stated his mother Asma, whose tears would not stop.
Shanto was running back to his aunt's house in Fakirerpool to fetch lunch for his father. Only one road separated him from the safety of his neighbourhood when he suddenly discovered himself in the middle of a clash, said Asma.
"The clash started all of a sudden. Before he realised it, he was down on the ground," described his mother to The Daily Star.
"My son lay in a pool of blood for around twenty minutes before he was rescued ... that too by another child. No one else dared to save my boy," she went on.
The minor Asma referred to is Mohammad Jewel, a 17 year old, who rescued Shanto while he was lying motionless on the ground.
Shanto's two-year-old brother was with him. He had gone missing after his brother fell down, said Asma.
"An acquaintance spotted him and dropped him home. I almost lost both my sons," she added.
Ashrafuzzaman, deputy commissioner of police of Motijheel zone, told The Daily Star that the police fired rubber bullets as the protesters were hurling homemade bombs at them.
Earlier, two 14-year olds, Mohammad Arzu and Siam, were killed by rubber bullets in separate hartal clashes in Ghandpur.
Arzu was caught in a clash between local factions of Awami League and BNP on October 28, while Siam was shot by rubber bullets while allegedly throwing a crude bomb at police on December 3.
With the addition of Shanto, 19 children had been victimized in the mindless political violence since October 26 with three of them succumbing to injuries.
Meanwhile, the air at the burn unit of DMGH was still heavy with the sufferings of arson victims.
Abdul Aziz, the auto-rickshaw driver who came in from Ghittagong bearing 35 percent burns, wheezed heavily lying on a bed in the Intensive Gare Unit (ICU). The man could barely breathe as his windpipe was burnt in the attack during the opposition's blockade programme on December 2.
Medical sources said his condition was critical.
Bahar, the son-in-law of policeman Nurunnabi who was burnt in an arson attack on a bus in Shahbagh on November 28, told this correspondent that he still feared for the life of his father-in-law.
"I can heave a sigh of relief only when he is brought out of the ICU," he said.
However, the family shared a joyous moment recently when Nurunnabi could take his first solid meal since the incident.
"His throat was burnt, so he had a lot of difficulty eating," said Bahar.