Four people who were shot and burnt during clashes in the mass protests on August 5 have died over the past two days.
The deceased are — Abul Kalam, 55, a lawyer from Cumilla Sadar upazila; Ujjal Hossain, 30, a mason from Chuadanga; Md Asif, 26, a shop employee in Noakhali and Al Amin Hossain, 27, a pharmaceutical sales representative from Barguna.
After completing autopsies, the bodies were handed over to their families yesterday.
Among them, Abul Kalam lived on Women’s College Road in Cumilla.
According to the report filed by Akib Noor, a sub-inspector of Dhanmondi Police Station, Kalam participated in a one-point demand protest for the government’s resignation on August 5.
He was allegedly attacked and shot by ward councillor Raihan and his group near Cumilla High School, adjacent to Cumilla Sadar Police Station.
He was taken to a local hospital that day and later transferred to Dhanmondi Popular Hospital in Dhaka on August 6. He passed away around 7:30pm on Thursday.
Shilu Akter, wife of the deceased Ujjal Hossain, said they live in Muktarpur village of Damurhuda upazila in Chuadanga.
Ujjal, a mason by profession, returned home from work on August 5 and went to Mollah Bazar in Muktarpur in the evening for tea. Protesters set fire to a hardware store in the market that day. Ujjal, along with several others, was inside the store. A gas cylinder in the shop exploded, leaving Ujjal and others severely burned.
They were admitted to the burn unit at DMCH. Ujjal had suffered 66 percent burns on his body. He died around 6:30am yesterday.
Jamal Uddin, a neighbour of the deceased Md Asif, said Asif’s home was in Miralipur village in Nokhali’s Begumganj upazila. Asif had recently started working at a shop. He attended a rally in Sonaimuri on August 5, where he was shot.
SI Faruk Ahmed of Shahbagh Police Station, who prepared Asif’s autopsy report, said a bullet-hit Asif was admitted to the Sadar Hospital. He was later transferred to DMCH on August 7, where he passed away at 10:30pm on Thursday.
Nasir Uddin Nasir, general secretary of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, said Asif was a JCD activist.
Alongside Asif, at least 32 JCD leaders and activists died so far following the clashes, he said.
Russell Hossain, the younger brother of the deceased Al Amin Hossain, said they hail from Afra village of Jashore’s Chowgacha. Al Amin worked as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company in Amtali of Barguna, where he had also lived.
After work on August 5, he was sleeping on the second floor of his residence when protesters set fire to the ground floor. The fire spread to the second floor, and Al Amin, along with several coworkers, was engulfed in flames.
Locals rescued and took them to Sher-e-Bangla Medical College in Barishal. The next day, he was transferred to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka, where he died at 5:30am yesterday.
Over 500 people, including many students, were killed during the mass protests, which eventually forced Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee the country on August 5.
