A Class IX student was sitting on a bed beside a window in Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, both legs bandaged after being bit by two bullets on July 19 afternoon at Mirpur 10.
He was on his way to his uncle鈥檚 house but had to visit three hospitals before finally settling at the hospital on the night a week before during the countrywide anti-quota student protests demanding reforms of the quota system in government jobs.
鈥業 do not know where those bullets come from. I only remember law enforcers standing in front of me,鈥� Adham said on Saturday, adding that an unknown person took him from one hospital to another.
He needs to stay at the hospital for a month or more because his right leg has lost a significant amount of flesh and requires plastic surgery, and his left leg also needs to heal.
鈥業 don鈥檛 know what the future holds for me. Who will take responsibility for the loss I have to endure for the rest of my life? My father has already spent about Tk聽 70,000, and more will be needed as time goes on,鈥� the schoolboy said, looking distraught.
Like him, there were 21 more patients in the hospital on Saturday, most of them sustained bullet injuries, mainly from the violence that occurred after law enforcers, accompanied by ruling Awami League activists, attacked and opened fire on student 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.聽
Since July 18, the state-run hospital received at least 518 injured people.
Most of the people arrived with bullet wounds. Of them, 65 critically injured were admitted, and by Saturday morning, 22 injured were still receiving treatment.
Md Shafiur Rahman, the hospital director, said that the surgeons had to stay at the hospital for three straight days between July 18 and 20, working in the operation theatres for at least 12 hours at a stretch during this period.
A readymade garment worker received more than a hundred pellets at聽about 5:00pm on July 18 while standing inside the office gate, ready to return home.聽
A father of two children said, 鈥楨very day, I have to spend a fixed amount of Tk 800 on dressings. I still have about 100 of pellets in my legs and have lost a significant amount of flesh from the legs, so I also need plastic surgery.鈥櫬�
As the sole earner, he, who wished to be unnamed, does not know how he will support his family, cover his daughter鈥檚 education expenses as she has just passed the Higher Secondary Certificate examination, or provide basic food for his four-year-old son.聽
Several injured people declined to speak to this correspondent for fear of facing problems if they talked to the media, which they believe would only exacerbate their woes.