Controversy is brewing in Bangladesh over the arrest of five medical staff for neglecting the treatment of a citizen killed by police firing during a university student protest last year.
Law enforcement authorities claim that the injured died due to neglect of medical staff, while the hospital confronts that there was an inevitable situation.
According to AFP on the 21st (local time), prosecutors recently arrested a doctor and four nurses for neglecting the treatment of Mohammad Ismail, a three-wheeler driver who died after being shot in the head by police fire on July 19 last year during a university student protest.
At that time, college students were protesting against the government quota system for descendants of independence fighters.
Protests have intensified. When some 800 people died due to bloody suppression by military and police, then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned from his post in early August of the same year and fled to India.
The arrest of the medical staff came amid a recent social media video showing Ismail, who was shot in the capital Dhaka at the time, lying bleeding on the entrance stairs of a hospital in Dhaka.
A prosecution official said, “I watched the video in question,” and added, “The medical staff left Ismail alone for four hours and killed him.”
However, the hospital’s argument was completely different.
An official at the hospital told AFP that the arrested medical staff had repeatedly violated police and ruling party orders not to treat injured demonstrators and treated the injured.
“At the time, the medical staff were trying to bring Ismail into the hospital, and the police fired and had no choice but to run away,” the official said, adding that law enforcement authorities did not arrest the police who shot Ismail, but only arrested medical staff who tried to save his life.
In response, Ismail’s wife defended the medical staff, saying she wanted “justice” and “do not want innocent people to go to prison.”
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
