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[ View the story "Hasan" on Storify ] Truck helper | Seventeen year old | Sayedabad, Dhaka | Arson | Petrol bomb I watched H...
I watched Hasan die. I literally watched the life slowly draining out of his shrivelled dehydrated body.
Medical jargon termed it intense water loss due to irreparable damage of the epidermis.He died of neurogenic shock, they said.
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| Hasan |
How his skin blackened, shrivelling like an old apple. How it cracked, revealing a startling red underneath.
How his eyes were swollen shut, or the fact that his eye lids were so inflamed they had turned inside out. Or the fact that his own mother recognized him by the only body part not mutilated beyond identification - his toenails.
A reporter asked me which part of him was left unhurt. "Only his toes," I said.
It falls short of recounting how the firefighters found him encased in a cocoon of dissolved synthetic seats inside the burnt bus - still alive and barely so. They didn't realize someone was inside until they had doused down the flames.
It failed to describe that when he feebly croaked into his oxygen mask to give him some water, I could not take off the darned mask because it got stuck with his molten skin.
THe nurse did it though - she yanked the mask off.
The jargon fails to describe teh cold feeling sinking into my feet when I asked the forensic doctor to please explain what had induced the 'neurogenic shock' that Hasan died of.
"He died of pain. His body went into a shock because it could not take the pain anymore".
Published: Friday, December 6, 2013
Parked Bus Set Ablaze
Teenage helper charred; dies
Staff Correspondent
All burnt and bandaged, teenager Hasan being moved into his bed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The bus helper by profession was sleeping inside his parked bus at Sayedabad yesterday morning when opposition activists torched the vehicle, Hasan getting 90 percent of his body burnt. He died in the evening. Photo: Focus Bangla
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 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. Pro-hartal 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.
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 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. Pro-hartal 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.
The burnt down bus, of which Hasan was a helper, at Sayedabad. Photo: Courtesy
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.
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.
Critically burnt auto-rickshaw driver Khorshed Alam at Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Opposition activists torched his CNG-run vehicle yesterday in the port city’s Chandgao area. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das
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 auto-rickshaw, 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 — Abu Talha 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.
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| Hasan's last moments were an anathema to everything beautiful about death - wrapping up a fruitful life well lived, final moments with family well loved, blessings for the journey ahead. The boy died alone with not a soul to watch out for his last breath. His mother was still on her way from Chittagong. |