Horror still haunts Dr Bimal

Dr Bimalendra Nath Shushil. PHOTO: STAR

Eleven members of a Hindu family were burnt to death in the raid on his house at the remote village of Sadhanpur at Banskhali coast on November 18 night. The incident whipped up uproar and sensation in Chittagong.

"The appearance of my parents and other family members flashes in my mind every moment," Dr Bimal told this correspondent at his cabin at a private clinic in the port city where he was undergoing treatment for his ankle injury. Dr Bimal was injured as he jumped from the roof of the earthen house during the arson attack.

" I don't want to go back to my homestead as it is a ghoulish abode now. It is no more secure. It is a dreadful place now," he said in an emotion choked voice.

" If I go back I might be attacked again. I want safety and security of my life and I want to stay in the town after recovery. I appeal to the government to help me stay in the city as my village home is unsafe for me now. I also want justice," a traumatised Dr. Bimal said.

" I don't have any hostility or dispute with anybody in my area. Even nobody attempted ever to grab our land properties. I want proper investigation and justice".

During the incident, initially I thought that teargas shell was fired by the attackers when we refused to open the door of upstairs as I felt burning sensation in my eyes and white smokes were gushing out, Bimal said.

" Normally black smokes come out during fire incident that does not cause that much irritation in the eyes. But I guess the attackers might have brought some combustible substances to use for setting fire. Otherwise, it was impossible to spread the fire so quickly around our mud house though its ground floor roof was made of bamboo covered with earth. This thing makes me believe that the attackers were well prepared," he said.

"But whatever may be, I don't want to go back there any more," Bimal said.

In reply to a question Dr Bimal said, "everything was burnt. So, I can't say what the attackers took away".

"I have been practising in my village for the last four years and everybody respects me there. Even no patient died due to wrong treatment. So, I get puzzled and failed to understand why we were attacked".

Dr Bimal said he was in Muskat before starting practice at his village.

Dr Bimal's wife, son and daughter escaped the macabre incident as they were at his father-in- law's house.