They are on verge of losing their eyesight

Nafis Ahsan, 30, was going to office in Mohakhali from his house in the capital’s Rampura through Merul Badda on 18 July. He usually takes a rickshaw, but was walking to his workplace that day as there was no rickshaw available in the area due to the severe clashes between the police and the quota protesters.

Even before realising anything, Nasif was shot in the body and eyes with pellets. Although the pellets have been removed from his body, he is yet to regain his sight.

This correspondent spoke to Nafis over the phone. He told Prothom Alo, “I will probably never regain my sight.”

Nafis works at the Mohakhali branch of a private bank. He lives in the Natun Rasta area in West Hazipara in Rampura. Nafis was hit with 22 pellets in his chest, forehead and hands and two in his eyes. He sustained a critical injury in his left eye.

Nafis was taken to the Lions Eye Institute and General Hospital in the capital’s Agargaon after sustaining the injuries. Nafis’ uncle works as a physician there. He and another specialist conducted an eye surgery on Nafis.

Speaking to Prothom Alo over the phone on Thursday, Shahidul Haque said, “He was brought to the hospital at around 12:00 pm. I checked him and consulted with two senior physicians. By that time, we had his CT scan report. There were two pellets deep inside the eyeball of his left eye.”

He further said, “He (Nafis) is almost blind in his left eye. He doesn’t have any vision in his left eye.”

Abdur Rahim, executive official at the administrative section of Lions Eye Institute & General Hospital, told Prothom Alo that more 150 persons went there for treatment in the three days from 18 July to 20 July. In addition to eye injuries, many of them had injuries on other parts of their body.

According to the hospital authority, among the patients admitted to the hospital in those three days, around 50 had major or minor injuries in their eyes and 20 of them had to undergo surgery, including 11 major surgeries. Four of those who underwent surgery are likely to not regain their eye-sight ever. Nafis is one of them. The three other patients are Faisal Ahmed, Rafiqul Islam and Mehedi Hasan.

Faisal Ahmed has just completed his HSC from the Nirjhar Cantonment Public School and College in Mirpur. His admission to Jagannath University is underway.

Faisal was shot in his eye at around 5:30 pm on 18 July. He was demonstrating with other protesters in the area between Mirpur-10 and Mirpur-2.

Faisal told Prothom Alo over the phone, “The situation was escalating at the Mirpur-10 roundabout. The foot over bridge there was set on fire. Police were firing tear shells and rubber bullets from the Mirpur-2 end. We too were proceeding towards Mirpur-2. I didn’t even realise that I was shot in my eye.”

He was shot in his right eye, “I can no longer see things clearly anymore. It is almost like seeing nothing. The physicians are saying there is almost no possibility of regaining vision this eye.”

Bangladesh Lion Foundation chairman AKM Rezaul Haque told Prothom Alo they had conducted surgery on nearly 20 patients. Some of them have completely lost their sight. However, the physicians are trying hard for their full recovery.

*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu