After broadband internet was restored in selected areas on July 23, a video began circulating on social media showing a man hanging from the ledge of an under-construction building.
In that video, two cops were seen shooting at the man from close range. Despite all these, the man was seen desperately hanging on his fingertips for his life.
The footage led many to believe that the person in the video had been killed on the spot.
This correspondent spoke to eyewitnesses and confirmed the authenticity of the video by geolocation tracking on July 24. The video was taken from a building near Meradia Bazar in Rampura.
Visiting the under-construction building, this correspondent saw bloodstains on the third and fourth floors.
However, The Daily Star could not confirm the death.
Recently, The Daily Star got information that Amir, the man in the video who everyone believed to be dead, is alive.
He is now recovering at his Dhaka residence in a slum in Noapara, Meradia.
Speaking with The Daily Star yesterday, Amir told us how he survived.
After attending Friday prayers, Amir said he was on his way home when BGB and police opened fire on protesters. Fearing for his life, he ran and took refuge on the fourth floor of the under-construction building.
At one stage of the clash, many cops entered the building, he said. Fearing for his life, Amir tried to hide by hanging from a ledge on the fourth floor.
After a while, two policemen found him.
Amir said that instead of helping him, the cops threatened to kill him.
While firing blank rounds at him, they told the helpless 18-year-old to jump.
“Jump from the building, or we will shoot you.”
Meanwhile, a police officer who spotted Amir from the third floor didn’t fire blank rounds.
From the third floor, he fired six live rounds, all of them hitting him, three on each leg.
Despite bleeding heavily from his injuries, Amir clung to the rod until the police left.
He then collapsed onto the third floor.
“I tried to get up but had no strength. I shouted, but sounds of gunfire muffled my pleas for help,” Amir recounted, referring to the clash that was going on nearby.
“At one point, I almost gave up hope. I thought I would die. My vision was blurred, but a part of me didn’t want to give up. Thoughts of my elderly father and a sister, whose marriage I had been saving money for, kept me going. I simply didn’t want to die,” he added.
Nearly three hours later, after the clash subsided, a student found Amir lying in a pool of blood.
Two doctors from a nearby hospital, who were in the area, quickly joined the rescue. They tried desperately to stop the bleeding.
“They kept telling me, ‘Don’t close your eyes. Stay awake. We won’t let you die. Please, don’t close your eyes,” Amir recalled.
They took him to Famous Hospital, where he received initial treatment that night before being referred to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
Amir bled so much that he required three bags of blood at the hospital. After three days, he was discharged from DMCH.
“He needed further treatment, but DMCH was flooded with people who had life-threatening injuries. Since Amir’s condition was stable, doctors prescribed him medication for three months and sent him home,” said Nasima Begum, Amir’s aunt.
“After the video went viral, we heard police were searching for us. There were stories of raids where police were picking up people with bullet injuries, so we stayed quiet. Journalists were also looking for him. Only after the hall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, we let people know about Amir’s ordeal,” she added.
Amir showed this correspondent all of the bullet wounds.
In his right leg, a bullet struck the sole of his foot and pierced through his ankle, another hit his shin and exited through his calf, and a third struck his thigh, passing through his hip.
In his left leg, one bullet struck just below his knee and exited the other side, another hit the top of his thigh and exited through the opposite end. The last one was lodged below his thigh and exited through the other side.
We took photos of his medical reports, including the X-rays, and consulted physicians from Famous Hospital and Farazy Hospital, where Amir had a follow-up after being discharged from DMCH.
At Famous Hospital, doctors confirmed that Amir would have likely died from excessive bleeding if he had been brought in a little later. Both hospitals noted that Amir’s speedy recovery was due to sheer luck as the bullets missed major arteries; if they had, it might have been fatal.
However, Amir still can’t stand on his own and needs assistance to use the washroom. The doctors noted that he lost a significant amount of blood and it would take time for him to fully recover.
