Public anger sparks against Shahadat

Protest against cricketer Shahadat Hossain and his wife Nrittya Shahadat spilled over onto the street yesterday from social media for torturing their domestic help.

The Network for Establishing Domestic Helps' Rights formed a human chain in front of the capital's Jatiya Press Club demanding arrest of the couple.

A domestic help protection law should also be enacted immediately, the rights organisation said.    

Meanwhile, the condition of 11-year-old Mahfuza Akhtar Happy receiving treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) did not improve much. 

Her left foot was plastered and drops were being administered to treat blood clots around her eyes, said Dr Bilkis Begum, coordinator of the one-stop crisis centre at the hospital.

Pallabi police rescued Happy from Kalshi area on Sunday night several hours after she fled Shahadat's residence in Mirpur-2, adjacent to Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. They later handed her over to Mirpur police who admitted her to DMCH.

A case against pacer Shahadat and his wife was filed on the same night. 

Examining Happy, doctors found her left foot fractured. She also had blood clots around the eyes and bruises on her hands and back.

Murshida Akter, general secretary of the National Domestic Workers Unity, expressed dissatisfaction over police's failure to arrest the couple.

Her organisation will hold a similar protest programme tomorrow at the same venue, she said.

"We raided all possible locations, including the cricketer's ancestral home at Fatullah in Narayanganj and his relatives' houses in search of him and his wife, but to no avail," said Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan, officer-in-charge of Mirpur Police Station.

Police are trying hard to arrest them, he added.