Abdullah Shafil, 17, a first-year student of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) under the Department of Business and Technology of the Northern University who lost his eyes during the anti-discrimination students’ movement in Khulna, hopes to see a discrimination-free new Bangladesh.
“On August 2, anti-discrimination students and people's movements occupied the streets in the morning.”
“Khulna city turned into a human sea, and most of the streets were contemplated and roaring with anti-government slogans. I decided to join the protest procession like previous days with my inmates,” Shafil told BSS in an interview on Saturday.
“I joined the protest procession after Jumma prayer on Friday. It was running towards Khulna University (KU).
As the procession reached the KU campus on the Khulna-Satkhira highway, suddenly, some policemen started to hurl hundreds of tear shells, rubber bullets, and gunshots from the opposite side of our procession. At one stage, I felt a flash of intense light. In a moment, I fell on the street. When I stood up, I saw nothing. The darkness arrived surrounding me,” Shafil said with a grieved voice.
He said, “My inmates rushed me to a private hospital in the city and got treatment from different eye specialists in Khulna. Later, I went to the Institute of Eye Science in the capital for better treatment.
My left eye was fully damaged, and my right eye is now about to be damaged.” Quoting physicians, Shafil said, a bullet splinter hit behind his retina through the intruded cornea, and it (the cornea) separated from the eyes, adding that for this, the nerves of the eyes started to dry.
Abdullah Shafil, son of Yunus Ali, hails from Morelganj upazila in Bagerhat and came to Khulna along with his mother, Masuma Akter, with the dream of becoming an electrical and electronics engineer.
His father, Yunus, a fish trader, admitted his only son to Northern University. He and his parents started to live in the Nabopally area under the Sonadanga Police Station in the city.
Shafil, with a tear-wet voice, said, “I am taking treatment at different hospitals after the fall of fascist Sheikh Hasina’s government when my inmates take a new breath in second independent Bangladesh with cheers and a festival of joy,” adding, “I wanted to see discrimination-free new Bangladesh with my own eyes.”
Shafil’s father, Yunus Ali, said, quoting physicians, that if better treatment, at least in Singapore, can be provided, my son can see the new Bangladesh. It will be the best gift for him now.
Terming huge money is necessary to save his son’s eyes, but it (money) is almost impossible for me, he said with a grieved voice, adding I am trying to collect some money from the relatives.
When contacted, Professor Motiar Rahman of the Northern University said university teachers are trying to collect money for Shafil’s treatment.
“We have already started a campaign for Shafil’s treatment online, he added.
It may be mentioned here that at least 10 students were injured when police swooped and hurled tear shells and bullets at the anti-discrimination students protest rally on the Khulna-Satkhira highway on August 2, 2024.
