DU offers legal aid to tortured teacher Rumana
With no treatment available in Bangladesh and India to restore Rumana Manzur’s eyesight, her family is now approaching eye specialists in developed countries hoping to find some treatment for her eyes there.
“We are contacting hospitals and eye specialists abroad. They might do something in a complicated situation like this,” said Rumana’s cousin Rashed Maqsood.
He said they have already sent the diagnostic reports of Rumana’s eyes to the USA, Singapore, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
“We are trying to explore if any doctor in the world can treat the eyes that do not respond to light,” he said.
Rumana, an assistant professor of International Relations at Dhaka University and a postgraduate student at the University of British Columbia in Canada, sustained severe injuries as her husband Hasan Sayeed Sumon pushed his fingers into her eyes on June 5. He also gnawed her nose, cheek and throat.
Doctors in Bangladesh and India said her left eye has been completely damaged and the other one is not responding to light.
She is now taking treatment at capital’s LabAid Hospital where doctors are trying to protect her eyes from infection.
Quoting doctors, her father Manzur Hossain said a plastic surgery will be needed to bring her nose back to shape.
Meanwhile, Stephen Toope, president of the University of British Columbia (UBC), said a number of fundraising efforts for Rumana are underway.
“UBC is also working to prepare options for Ms Manzur to complete her master’s degree in political science,” Toope said in a letter. “While this cannot, of course, be Rumana’s immediate priority, we want her to know that everyone at UBC is thinking of her and of her future,” reports CBC news in Canada.
Dhaka University authorities have agreed to provide legal assistance for Rumana. She will also continue to hold her post at the university.
DU Vice-chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique gave the assurance following a request from her family, said Prof Delwar Hossain, chairman of the International Relations Department.
SUMON REMANDED AGAIN
Hasan Sayeed Sumon was yesterday remanded for another day in a case filed for torturing his wife.
Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Utpal Chowdhury passed the remand order after police produced Sumon before his court with a 10-day remand prayer.
Since his arrest on June 15, he has been interrogated during remand for five days in three phases.
CALL FOR JUSTICE
Academics, human rights activists, women rights activists, media personalities and students demanded exemplary punishment to Sumon.
They made the call from a protest rally organised by a platform formed to press for justice for Rumana on Shaheed Minar premises yesterday.
-With The Daily Star input
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