Irate Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists closed all the gates of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for more than eight hours in protest against the attack on former president of the BCL’s CMC unit and an intern doctor of the CMCH, Sohel Pervez Suman, on Saturday, causing immense inconvenience for patients and their relatives. Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) activists allegedly attacked Suman in the Mehedibag area of the port city at around 7:30 am on Saturday. He was injured in the head and had to be rushed to the CMCH where he is undergoing treatment. According to doctors, his condition is stable, but will be kept under observation for 24 hours.
Following the assault, intern doctors immediately stopped work, causing immense sufferings to more than 2,000 patients. BCL activists blocked the main gate and locked all other hospital gates, except the Emergency gate.
Patients’ relatives had a trying time to find doctors in the hospital. Sultan Ahamed, a patient’s relative, said: “The condition of my patient was serious, but I couldn’t find any doctor. We could not enter the wards as Chhatra League activists had closed all the gates.”
Saber Ahamed, another patient’s kin, said he was supposed to release his patient, but was unable to enter the hospital.
He also alleged that law enforcement agencies did nothing to help the patients’ relatives. The CMCH authorities, however, claimed that emergency services were not disrupted and all scheduled operations were carried out.
Sources said Suman, along with three other friends, was going to the hospital campus from Chittagong railway station in an auto-rickshaw early in the morning. When they reached the Mehedibag area, some Shibir cadres riding a bike stopped their auto-rickshaw in front of the National Hospital, a private clinic, and started attacking Suman.
Ferdows Rasel, a friend of Suman, who was in the same auto-rickshaw, said the Shibir men attacked Suman with sharp weapon and steel pipes, leaving him critically injured. Listening to his screams, as some locals rushed to the spot, the Shibir activists beat a hasty retreat, he said.
The president of the BCL’s CMC unit, Mesbahul Islam, alleged that a gang of Shibir men, led by the president in-charge of the Shibir’s CMC unit, attacked Suman with sharp weapons at Mehedibag. “We demonstrated and boycotted all classes demanding arrest and exemplary punishment for those involved in the attack,” he added.
-With The Independent input
