KHULNA, Aug 21, 2024 (BSS)-Abdullah Shafil, 17, a first-year student of the Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) under the Department of Business and Technology of the Northern University, who lost his eyes during the anti-discrimination students’ movement in Khulna, hopes to see the discrimination-free new Bangladesh.

“On August 2, anti-discrimination students and people movement occupied streets from the morning.

 Khulna city turned into a human sea and most of the streets contemplated and roaring with anti-government slogans. I decided to join the protest procession like previous days with my inmates,” Shafil told BSS in an interview on Saturday.

“I joined the protest procession after Jumma prayer on Friday.

It was running towards Khulna University (KU).

 As the procession reached to the KU campus on the Khulna-Satkhira highway, suddenly, some policemen started to hurl hundreds of tear shells, rubber bullets and gun shots from the opposite side of our procession. At one stage, I feel a flash of intense light. In a moment, I fell on the street. When I stood up, I saw nothing. The darkness arrived surrounding me,” Shafil said with grieved voice.

He said, “My inmates rushed me to a private hospital in the city and got treatment from different eye specialists in Khulna. Later, I went to the Institute of Eye Science in the capital for better treatment. My left eye was damaged fully and my right eye is now about to be damaged.

Quoting physicians, Shafil said, a bullet splinter hit behind his retina through the intrude cornea and it (cornea) separated from the eyes, adding that for this nerves of the eyes started to dry.

Abdullah Shafil, son of Yunus Ali, hailed from Morelganj upazila in Bagerhat and came to Khulna along with his mother Masuma Akter with a dream of becoming an Electrical and Electronics Engineer.

His father Yunus, a fish trader, admitted his only son at Northern University. He along with his parents started to live in the Nabopally area under Sonadanga Police Station in the city.

Shafil with a tear-wet voice said, “I am taking treatment at different hospitals after the fall of fascist Sheikh Hasina’s government when my inmates take a new breath in second independent Bangladesh with cheers and festival of joy,” adding,  “I wanted to see discrimination free new Bangladesh with my own eyes.”

Shafil’s father Yunus Ali said, quoting physicians, if better treatment at least in Singapore, can be provided, my son can see the new Bangladesh. It will be the best gift for him now.

Terming huge money is necessary to save his son’s eyes but it (money) is almost impossible for me, he said with a grieved voice, adding I am trying to collect some money from the relatives.

When contacted, Professor Motiar Rahman of the Northern University, said university teachers are trying to collect money for Shafil’s treatment.

 “We have already started a campaign for Shafil’s treatment through online, he added.

It may be mentioned here that at least 10 students were injured when police swooped and hurled tear shells and bullets on the anti-discrimination students protest rally in Khulna-Satkhira highway on August 2 in 2024.