For over a week, three-year-old Namira and one-year-old Nadira have had their smiles wiped off their faces.

Their father Syed Masudur Rahman, a traffic police sergeant, was their only playmate at home.

After returning home from work, he would spend some quality time with them before dinner.

But now, he lies on a hospital bed after a mob attacked him with iron rods and pipes.

On July 18, Masud, a sergeant of the Wari Traffic Division under Dhaka Metropolitan Police, left his Aftabnagar home for his duty.

But even before he could make it, he was attacked right near his house.

"I was beaten indiscriminately with sticks. I tried to enter a bank for shelter but I failed. Then, I was attacked again," he told The Daily Star at the Central Police Hospital in the capital's Rajarbagh recently.

With injuries to his head, face, hands, and legs, Masud contacted his seniors after he was finally able to take shelter inside the bank.

"But they couldn't reach the spot. Then my wife came there and begged the attackers to let me go. They made me apologise too. Finally, I was let go."

Masud said his right hand had been broken. He had to get eight stitches on one finger and 10 on his head.

"I could tell from the nature of the attack on me and other policemen that the attackers weren't students. Instead, students tried to stop them."

At least 47 other cops are currently being treated at the hospital, with one of them in the Intensive Care Unit.

Speaking to this correspondent, many of them, like Masud, said the attacks were not carried out by students.

The same day he was attacked, Constable Aminul Islam of Khilgaon Police Station was on duty near Bangladesh Television Centre in Rampura.

"Soon after my duty started at 10:00am, chases and counter-chases took place with agitators for around three hours. Suddenly, we were surrounded from three sides. When I tried to move towards Hatirjheel, I bumped into another policeman and fell to the ground. That's when attackers began beating me up.

"Some pedestrians rescued me and brought me to the hospital."

Aminul had to get 60 stitches on his head alone. His left arm was broken.

In Uttara, Md Mohiuddin, assistant sub-inspector of Uttara West Police Station, was attacked the same day.

"I was going towards Abdullahpur on a motorcycle and was stopped by a group of attackers in front of the Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital. They attacked me with rods and machetes."

 I entered the kitchen of a house to save myself, but they broke down the door and attacked me again. They beat me for around 25 minutes."

He said a group of people then tried to take him to the Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Hospital but the attackers vandalised the ambulance he was in.

"They even beat the nurses inside the hospital. I could not get any treatment for almost five hours. My wife came to the hospital and they also beat her... Around 1:00am, I was able to get on a CNG-run auto-rickshaw to head to the police hospital, but I was attacked once again at Mohakhali."

Constable Motaleb was attacked in Jatrabari.

"I was not in full uniform. But the moment the attackers in the area realised I was a policeman, they struck me on my head... I lost consciousness and don't remember anything after that."

Sheikh Md Rezaul Hayder, deputy inspector general and director of Central Police Hospital, said, "We've tried to provide treatment to all the injured policemen to the best of our abilities. We've already operated on around 30 critically injured patients.

"These treatments would cost up to Tk 2 crore, but we're providing them for free. A total of 259 police officials have been admitted to the hospital and three of them died."