Friday, March 29, 2013

City Corporation Girls’ High School in Chittagong:Is it my fault coaching class during hartal hours

It was a hartal day, not a holiday. So she woke up, got dressed and stepped out on the road to attend a coaching class she had on schedule yesterday.
Fourteen -year-old Antu Barua at that time had no idea of the price she would have to pay for her “mistake”. Yes, to those who took the onus on themselves to enforce the hartal at any cost, she made a mistake.
So, it was her fault that she received injuries from cocktail explosions carried out by hartal supporters — because she was out and found herself before a pro-hartal procession.
Lying on a hospital bed with a bandage on her right eye, Antu, a student of class nine of Aparnacharan City Corporation Girls’ High School in Chittagong, said, “Is it my fault that I went to attend my coaching class during hartal hours?”
Accompanied by her mother, Antu left her residence in the city’s Hemsen Lane area around 7:00am yesterday, the second day of the 36-hour countrywide shutdown called by the BNP-led 18-party alliance.
“As soon as we both got on the main road from our alley, I saw a procession marching from Bouddha Mandir intersection, chanting pro-hartal slogans,” Antu’s mother Shilpi Rani Barua said.
They saw some torched tyres on Momin Road at the time, said Shilpi, a health officer of Raozan upazila in Chittagong.
In a state of panic, they rushed towards their destination but then heard two loud bangs.
“Immediately I found that my daughter was on the ground, holding her right eye,” said Shilpy while trying to hold back tears.
Antu was rushed to Chittagong Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) and admitted to its eye care ward, Nayek Abul Bashar of CMCH Police Camp said.
Subrata Das, a doctor at the eye care ward of CMCH, said, “Luckily, the splinters missed the cornea as they hit somewhere between the cornea and the eyebrow of her [Antu's] right eye.”
The eye was out of danger and Antu would be able to see as normally as she did before, he added.
“Now she is suffering more from shock than from physical injuries,” he noted.
The victim’s father Anjan Barua was seen sitting beside his daughter on the hospital bed.
The parents said they expected that no such incident would happen to anyone’s children in future.
Mirza Saiem Mahmud, assistant commissioner of Kotwali zone of Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said police were conducting drives to nab the culprits involved in the incident.

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