One lost a leg in Rab shooting. The other lost four fingers of her right hand — her husband chopped them off to compel her to stop study.
But Limon Hossain, the Rab victim, and Hawa Akhter Jui, the victim of her husband’s brutality, defied their odds and appeared in the HSC examinations that began yesterday.
A Rapid Action Battalion team shot Limon, then 16, in the left leg as he was taking his cattle to a field at Chhaturia village of Jhalakathi on March 23 last year.
Rab “mistakenly” took him for a top criminal.
On December 4 last year, Jui’s husband Rafiqul Islam, an expatriate worker in the UAE, chopped off her fingers with a machete as a “punishment,” for she wanted to pursue higher education.
Jui took her Bangla first paper exam at Narsingdi Govt Women’s College centre. Still unable to write, she dictated the answers to her cousin Sania Akhter who wrote those on the answer sheet. Sania took her SSC exam this year, reports our Narsingdi correspondent.
“Despite a poor preparation, I have done well in the examination,” Jui said after the exam.
“I’m taking the exam with the help of my teachers and local administration,” she said adding, “I expect to get A plus if I can do well in other papers.”
Talking to The Daily Star, Jui’s parents expressed satisfaction over their daughter’s courage and determination.
They asked all to pray for her so her dream comes true.
Limon took the exam from Kawkhali PGS School and College under Technical Education Board at Kawkhali Govt Boys’ School in Jhalakathi, our Barisal correspondent reports.
After the exam, he told journalists that his only dream was to complete his education and help his poor family.
“I hope to do well in the next examination,” he said adding, “I have to fulfil my dream. I want to serve the country on receiving higher education.”
Hours after he was shot, doctors had to amputate his left leg from his thigh to stop infection due to profuse bleeding.
A technical team of Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) in Savar fixed an artificial leg on him on August 29 last year.
Limon went home on October 13 and started making preparation for the exam.
-With The Daily Star input
