Auto rickshaw driver attacked and shot by BCL men for helping injured students

Auto rickshaw driver attacked and shot by BCL men for helping injured students

DHAKA, August 25, 2024 (BSS) – During the student movement against discrimination, auto-rickshaw driver Mohammad Pervej was attacked by Bangladesh Chhatra League leaders and then shot and beaten with a knife and machete mercilessly for taking injured students to hospitals.


After shooting Pervej with the gun pointed at his spine, the BCL attackers hit the 22-year-old auto-rickshaw driver on the head, hand, stomach, spine and shoulder with a machete and cut the vein in his left leg, leaving him critically injured near Shibbari intersection around 3.30 pm on August 4.


“BCL leaders hit me with a knife, machete and shot me by pointing the barrel of the gun at my spine while I was helping the injured students to take them to the hospital, breaking BCL’s restrictions of not transporting injured students with my auto-rickshaw,” Pervej said while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) with fear and uncertainty on his face.


On August 4, students and people from all walks of life were protesting in the Shibbari area, blocked by the police and BCL leaders from both sides and there was no way to take the injured people to the hospital without avoiding the police or BCL leaders.


Amid firing and attacks by police and BCL leaders, protesting students were continuously injured one after another, but no vehicle agreed to transport the injured students because they were afraid of the possible wrath of BCL, Pervej said.


“In that situation, I became the target of BCL leaders while taking the injured students to the hospital,” Pervej said, adding, “After dropping three injured students from the street to the hospital, around 70-80 BCL leaders, led by BCL Gazipur City General Secretary Sheikh Mostak Ahmed Kajol, threatened me asking me not to help the students anymore.”


“I ignored the BCL threat while taking two other injured students to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, the BCL leaders stopped the rickshaw and started beating me and the injured separately with local weapons like machetes, sticks, rods and knives,” he said.


“BCL Metro thana co-organiser Kobra Kabir pulled me away from the students and shot me, placing the gun on my spine. The shot was so powerful that the bullet exited my body and made a hole near my kidney,” Pervej said.


They did not stop even after shooting me, but the rest of the people beat me mercilessly with a machete and also cut the vein in my left leg with a sharp knife, he added.


On the way to Sadar Hospital in Gazipur, Pervej, accompanied by his cousin Rubel, faced another hurdle while crossing the Joydebpur railway barrier area as another BCL group stopped them. They did not allow us to take the injured Pervej to the hospital saying, “Let them die here without treatment,” said Pervej’s cousin Rubel.


“We then got a truck loaded with fish and took them to the hospital, placing the three injured people, including Pervej, in the middle of the fish and wrapping their bodies in coloured polyethylene,” Rubel said.


Later, Pervej’s cousin had to face a tougher time as he (Pervej) was referred to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, but ambulances were charging Tk 40-50 thousand from Gazipur to Dhaka.


They then returned to Shibbari to seek help from students. Later, with the help of students and family members, Rubel managed to take Pervej to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.


In addition to helping injured students, Pervej was also seen distributing water and food among students on Aug. 4 with his earnings from the previous day, Rubel said.


Pervej is happy about the students’ victory, but worried about his future and the loan he will have to repay.

Pervej, who hails from Maijbari in Sarishabari upazila of Jamalpur, lost his mother when he was one and a half years old. After his mother left, his father left Pervej alone and did not maintain any contact with him.