Md Mahabul, a 35-year-old construction worker, lies in a bed at the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH) in Sher-E-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, gripped by the fear of losing vision in his left eye.

In ward 416, Mahabul groans in pain, with 42 pellets from a shotgun embedded in his head, body, and left eye.

He got injured by gunfire at the Gazipur Bypass while heading to work at a construction site, amid the clashes between policemen and students centring the movement for quota reformation in government jobs.“I was on my way to work when my boss called me and told me not to come. On my way back, I got caught in the clashes at the Bypass area. Around 42 pellets struck my body, and three of them pierced my left eye,” Mahabul recounts.

Local residents rushed him to a hospital in Gazipur. Later, he returned to his home district of Rangpur, where an eye specialist referred him to NIOH or Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, for further treatment.

Despite an operation on his eye at NIOH, Mahabul still cannot see with his left eye. “I cannot see anything with my left eye,” he says, his voice filled with despair.

Masuda Begum, his wife, expresses the uncertainty that now shrouds their family’s future. “My husband was driving an auto-rickshaw in Rangpur. He recently moved to Gazipur as a construction worker to support our five-member family. We have one son and two daughters. How will we manage when our only breadwinner is so grievously injured?” she asks, her voice trembling with worry.

Another victim, Md Ikram, a 19-year-old youth, battles his pain at NIOH, with his right eye injured by pellets.

He was returning home from his workplace at a welding shop in Shanarpar, Narayanganj, when he got caught in a clash on Thursday afternoon. Around 8-10 pellets pierced his body, including one on his right eye, said Babul Mia, father of Ikram.

Although the doctor conducted an operation on his bullet-injured right eye last Wednesday, Ikram has yet to get back vision in the eye, his father added.
“My son was preparing to go to Saudi Arabia within three months as a worker, but his fate brought him to the hospital, he said with his voice heavy with sorrow.