Bappi loses battle for life
Bus helper Bappi, 25, wished to be a driver someday. So he had been preparing himself diligently and saving money for an exam to obtain a driver's licence.
But all his diligence came to an abrupt end as the ongoing blockade violence landed him in the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Admitted to the hospital on February 12, he died from burns yesterday.
"He had saved around five thousand takas and wanted to borrow another five thousand for the exam," said Mansura Begum, Bappi's mother-in-law.
Mansura, who works as a cook at a small restaurant in the capital's Gabtoli, said Bappi once asked her for the money.
"But it was beyond my capacity," she sobbed.
Partha Sankar Paul, resident surgeon of the DMCH burn unit, said Bappi died at the unit's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) around 11:35am. He received 70 percent burns with inhalation injuries.
Hospital sources said his entire body except the right hand and some part of the head was burnt severely.
With him, as many as 46 burn victims have died so far all over the country since the BNP-led 20-party began the nonstop countrywide blockade on January 6. Of them, 11 have died at DMCH burn unit.
Alai Mia, Bappi's maternal uncle, said he had attended his nephew at the hospital on Saturday night and his condition deteriorated around 10:00pm. "He was restless and could not talk much. He was repeatedly requesting me to take him home. I asked him to have patience. But his pain was unbearable,” said a shell-shocked Alai.
Bappi suffered burns when pickets had hurled a petrol bomb at a bus in the capital's Banasree area on February 12, on the 39th day of the BNP-led 20-party alliance's nonstop blockade.
A correspondent of this newspaper visited him a couple of times at the hospital. Each time, he expressed his worry about his family despite the unbearable pain he had sustained ever since he was taken to the ICU.
He was the breadwinner of his family and used to earn around Tk 350 a day.
"My family will be in deep trouble if I cannot work again," he had said over a week earlier, lying in a bed at the ICU.
He lived with his wife, two daughters, aged four and two, and mother in the capital's Mirpur. His father Dulal Mia, who is unable to earn money, lives in their village home in Netrakona.
Talking with The Daily Star last week, his mother Halima Khatun sounded worried about her son's health. But she too could not hide her anxiety about the family's dependency on his income.
"My son is my only hope. We will have to starve if his income stops,” said the mother, with tear trickling down her cheeks.
His mother-in-law Mansura said the government should take the responsibility of his daughters as they had nothing to do with the country's politics that caused Bappi's death and his family's immense suffering.
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