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At least 69 people, including students, who were injured in the violence during the quota reform student movement, were undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation in the capital on Friday.

Among them, some have already lost limbs, while some others are at risk of or awaiting the amputation of limbs. 

Most of them have sustained bullet injuries on their chest, legs, hands and abdomen, mainly from the violence that occurred after law enforcers, accompanied by the ruling Awami League activists, attacked and opened fire on protesters and ordinary people, mainly between July 18 and 21 in the Dhaka city and other places across the country, leaving more than 200 killed and several thousand injured. 

Hospital director professor Kazi Shamim Uzzaman said on Friday that 264 injured individuals had been admitted to the hospital, with 69 currently undergoing treatment.

When asked about their condition, the director only said that ‘the patients are under observation,’ and he did not provide details on how many injured had lost or were at risk of losing body parts.

Several hundred injured individuals, from areas including Gazipur, Mirpur, Uttara, Jatrabari, and Mohammadpur, received treatment at the hospital during the mentioned days, according to the hospital officials.  

Shahin Alom, a civil engineering student, sustained rubber bullet injuries while returning from Jumma prayers in the Mohammadpur area on July 19.

‘I was caught in the middle of the clash, and multiple rubber bullets hit my right hand, which has now become dysfunctional,’ Shahin lamented, who also used to work as a part-time delivery man.

Despite he underwent  two surgeries not all pellets from his hand could be removed.

Md Rakib, 19, was doing apprenticeship to become a barber for the past five months as his passport was ready for him to go to Dubai.

But all his dreams shattered when he received a bullet just below his knee on Dhaka-Chattogram Road at about 6:00pm on July 20 while returning home, just five metres from the road, resulting in him losing his left leg,’ said Rakib’s father.

Auto driver Raju has been waiting for amputation of his right leg after a bullet severed a vein in his knee in Gazipur on July 20.

Out of curiosity, Raju, a father of two children, went to see what was happening, barely aware that the law enforcers had opened direct fire as he said, ‘I thought I would see sound grenades being thrown or rubber bullets being fired. But suddenly, a bullet hit my right knee, and I fell on the road.’

‘I’ve been going through severe pain for the past six days. I cannot bear it anymore. I am waiting for my leg to be amputated, which the doctor said will be today or tomorrow. Probably after that, I’ll get some relief,’ he said while crying. 

Raju, the sole earner of the family, said, ‘I have to beg to support my family. I don’t know what will happen next.’

A staff member of the hospital’s casualty-2 ward said that 35 injured people, mostly bullet hit, were there, and four of them had already lost their legs.