The National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation in the capital has been witnessing a surge in the arrival of bullet-wounded patients many of whom alleged that they were picked up blindfolded and shot in police custody in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.
At least 42 bullet-wounded people and 27 others injured in explosions have taken treatment in police custody in NITOR since January 5 when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led opposition called nonstop blockade, according to official records at the hospital.
According to the register at the hospital’s emergency department, some 200 other people having police cases and assaulted physically took treatment in January 3-March 9. Nurses working in the emergency department at the orthopaedic hospital said there had been a surge in the arrival of bullet-wounded patients in recent times.
‘Given the increasing number of such patients, the authorities have asked us to open a new register exclusively for the patients wounded in the blockade-related violence,’ a nurse told New Age on Wednesday.
Several such patients have had their legs amputated after allegedly being shot point-blank in police custody. Top officials of the government and law enforcement agencies repeatedly asked law enforcers to shoot arsonists and saboteurs at sight. Incidents of shooting and gunfight have increased alarmingly during the current spate of political violence that reportedly killed at least 28 people, mostly young opposition activists, extrajudicially. Several patients claimed that they were innocent and police shot them in the legs unprovoked and even had asked for money.
Lying on the hospital bed, mobile-phone mechanic Shihabuzzaman Setu from Baliapur under Boalia in Rajshahi said he was picked up by police on the evening of March 3 from Baliapukur crossing and taken to the DB office where he was blindfolded and handcuffed round his back. He said that he was shot point-blank in the right knee around 2:00am on March 4 and was taken to the Rajshahi Medical College Hospital after about an hour before being shifted to NITOR on the following day. He had his right leg amputated above knee after three days, he said.
Truck driver Sumon Hossain Alamgir from Itbaria under Kalapara in Patuakhali said he was picked up from his truck by police from near Jhikargachha bridge in Jessore on the night of February 18, tortured and taken to the Jhikargachha police station where he was blindfolded and handcuffed round his back.
He said that something like bamboos or sticks were pressed on his right knee which broke his leg. ‘The police left me there untreated for hours though I was bleeding,’ he said. ‘Police on the following day took me to Jessore Medical College Hospital from where I was shifted here [NITOR] and doctors here amputated my right leg three days later,’ said a wailing Sumon.
‘What would happen to my seven-member family now,’ he asked. The police after detaining him, had phoned his wife and took Tk 30,000 through bkash promising his release, Sumon’s wife Ruma Begum told New Age.
‘Police took the money promising my husband’s release but instead they broke his leg and lodged a case against him. He has never been involved in politics,’ said Ruma as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Mohammad Nasir, 26, from Munshipara in Gazipur said he was picked up along with his friend Rumon by police from Shibbari area in Jaydevpur on February 12 after a transport was torched in the area. He said that police had tortured him before taking him blindfolded to Shibbari Banshpatti where they fired in the air to scare away onlookers.
‘The police then shot me point-blank in the knee and left me untreated there for hours before taking me to NITOR where my right leg was amputated above the knee four days later.
Mohammad Hossain, a painter by profession and father of four children, said he was smoking in front of his house at Madhupur of Maijdi in Noakhali on the evening of March 3 after returning from work when police picked him up and took him to DB office where he was blindfolded and handcuffed round his back.
‘The police then took me to a field near Hospital Road at Maijdi where they pumped five bullets into my left leg. I lay there for some time before they brought me here [NITOR] and the doctors here amputated my left leg above knee on March 7,’ he said. ‘I earn a living by doing physical work and have no links with politics.’
Nazmul, a resident of at Mohammadpur in the capital, told New Age that he was shot in the legs. He, however, did not give the details of the incident apparently fearing reprisals. Noman, a first year student of Borhanuddin College in Dhaka, was shot in the leg before being taken to NITOR.
His brother Palash said police had picked his brother up from Lakkhibazar in Old Dhaka suspecting him to be a pro-blockade picket. ‘Police shot him in the leg on the spot,’ he claimed. Officials in Dhaka Medical College Hospital said some 25-30 bullet-wounded people took treatment in the hospital in the last two months. Denying police’s excesses, the home minister for state, Asaduzzaman Khan, said most of them were ‘attackers’.
‘Police shot at them when they were fleeing after hurling bombs or launching attacks,’ the home minister said. A total of 124 people were killed in violence since the blockade was enforced January 5. Of the 124 victims, 64 were transport workers and passengers killed in arson attacks by suspected blockaders while 40 mostly opposition activists, died either in police ‘shootout’ or ‘road accidents’.
Doctors at the DMCH burn unit told New Age that a total of 165 arson victims were admitted to the hospital in two months until March 5. Of them, 14 died, 97 were released and over 50 are still under treatment.
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