Omar Faruq, a Bangladeshi student, remains hopeful for his country’s future despite his own bleak circumstances. Faruq was blinded by rubber pellets fired by police attempting to suppress a student-led revolution.
In the weeks of protests leading up to the ousting of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, over 450 people were killed, many by police gunfire. Hasina, who fled to India on August 5, ended her 15-year autocratic rule. However, dozens of protesters, including Faruq, suffered severe eye injuries from plastic or rubber pellets fired from shotguns.
The use of excessive force by Bangladeshi security forces has been widely criticized. Faruq, 20, was struck by pellets at close range during the protests in Dhaka, having traveled 200 kilometers from his hometown of Bogura to join the demonstrations.
He is now receiving treatment at the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH), the largest specialized eye center in Bangladesh. According to the institute, nearly 600 people have lost some degree of vision due to the pellets, with 20 individuals blinded completely. Many others are being treated for pellet injuries in various hospitals across Dhaka.
Mohammad Abdul Qadir, NIOH’s acting director, reported that they have performed up to 10 surgeries at once, describing the situation as unprecedented.
Human rights organizations have condemned the use of pellets for crowd control, labeling them as indiscriminate and potentially lethal at close range. Physicians for Human Rights have criticized their use as “inherently inaccurate.”
The United Nations recently indicated that there were “strong indications” of unnecessary and disproportionate force used by Bangladeshi security forces and plans to send a team to investigate.
At NIOH, patients like Mohammad Abdul Alim endure severe pain, with pellets still embedded in their bodies. Alim, 34, lamented the impact on his daily life, expressing anguish over his impaired vision. He described the police’s warning before the pellet assault as brief, resulting in many protesters collapsing immediately.
Alim and others hope that the new interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will provide support for their treatment. Yunus’s government has pledged to establish a foundation to aid the wounded and the families affected by the protests.
Despite their suffering, many injured protesters, like Rahmatullah Sardar Shabbir, express no regrets. Shabbir, a 26-year-old law student who lost vision in his left eye, views his sacrifice as a contribution to a new Bangladesh. “It is a sacrifice for my country,” he said, his bed adorned with the Bangladeshi flag. “We have created a new Bangladesh.”