2024-09-10 23:40:32
At least 631 people were killed and more than 19,200 people were injured in the anti-discrimination student movement across the country. After the start of the movement, from July 15 to August 5, the casualties were compiled in a report of the Ministry of Health.
The Health Department’s Management Information System or MIS wing is preparing the list of injured and killed in the movement. This list is being updated regularly with information from public and private hospitals across the country.
According to the report, at least 450 of the victims were brought dead to the hospital. The remaining 181 died while undergoing treatment in the hospital.
The student movement which started in early July to demand abolition of quota in government jobs, intensified after 15 July. Abu Saeed, a student of Begum Rokeya University, was shot dead by the police in Rangpur on July 16. On that day, 5 more people were killed in different parts of the country.
As the intensity of the movement increases, the violence increases. Sheikh Hasina left the country and fled to India after resigning from the post of Prime Minister on August 5 in the face of intense student-mass movement demanding the fall of the government.
The Ministry of Health formed a committee on August 15 to prepare a list of casualties in this movement. Muhammad Humayun Kabir, former senior secretary of health services department, heads this committee.
The list is prepared by the MIS wing of the Department of Health under the supervision of this committee. The committee submitted its report to the ministry on Thursday.
Referring to the report, Muhammad Humayun Kabir said on Monday that among the injured, more than 16,000 people have received treatment from various government hospitals across the country. At least three thousand people have received treatment in private hospitals.
He said this is the initial list, the number is being updated regularly.
According to the information given by him, the highest number of 477 people were killed in Dhaka division during the agitation. 43 people were killed in Chittagong division, 39 in Khulna division, one in Barisal division. Dhaka Division has the highest number of injured, 11,000 people. The number of injured in Chittagong division is two thousand.
Of those who went to hospital with injuries, 3,48 were in critical condition, requiring surgery. At least 535 were permanently disabled from their injuries.
Muhammad Humayun Kabir said they were given the responsibility of preparing a list of the dead and injured and formulating policies to provide government assistance to them. They started working on 18th August. The list is still in progress. Our source was the hospitals. We also take information outside of this, but verify it through certain processes. We have given some guidance on what the policy should look like.
He said that at the beginning of the movement, due to various reasons including the fear of litigation, the victims were brought to the hospital less. Due to this, the total number of dead may increase. Many of the dead were not brought to hospital. Many could not come to the hospital in late July and early August. There were some situational matters including lawsuits. So I think the number of dead will increase, those who are not in the system should be added. But we feel that the number of injured will not increase much.
On the question of whether there are government employees including the police in the list of the dead, he said that according to the rules, students should be included in the list. But he is still not sure about that. We haven’t checked every list, so we can’t say. If the hospital names the police as the deceased, then maybe there is. Government employees are not supposed to come in this list. It is the government’s decision who will be called a martyr by the government. But I think there should be a separate list for police. Because, if there are government people here, if they die while killing others, what should be done about them, should also be seen.