Student movement: Hospitals logged17,000 cases of casualties

The committee formed to compile a list of casualties from the student-led mass movement between July 17 and August 5 has identified over 17,000 cases of fatalities and injuries at various hospitals across the country.
“So far, we’ve confirmed 600 fatalities. Of them, at least 440 people were declared dead on arrival at different hospitals. As such the death toll between July 17 and August 5 is believed to have reached 1,000,” a member of the committee told The Daily Star.
On August 15, the health ministry formed a 13-member committee to prepare a complete list of the casualties that occurred during the recent mass uprising.
The initiative was taken in a bid to provide financial support to the family members of the deceased and provide proper medical support to those who are undergoing treatment at different medical facilities across the country.
It has been over three weeks since the committee was formed. While the list has yet to be finalised, the committee says that a first draft will be ready by next week.
“Collecting data from private hospitals is challenging as they don’t strictly preserve data like government hospitals do. In some cases, victims’ family members hid registry entries out of fear,” said Muhammad Humayun Kabir, former senior secretary of the health service division, also head of the committee.
Besides, in some cases, the register books of the private hospitals had only the names and ages for which it was difficult to trace the victims, he added.
“There were also cases where a good number of casualties were admitted to the hospitals as unnamed,” Kabir said.
“We are still receiving information about those who were admitted with injuries and are dying while undergoing treatment,” he said
Kabir went on to say that the process was being delayed due to private hospitals providing information at a slow pace.
As of today, there were no accurate government or private data on how many people were injured or killed in the student-led mass movement.
Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of the United Nations Office in its report titled “Preliminary Analysis of Recent Protests and Unrest in Bangladesh” said more than 600 people were killed between July 16 and August 11.
“In the last 15 working days, we have been working to verify these cases with the help of coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement,” Kabir said.
Speaking on the matter, Prof Syed Abdul Hamid of Dhaka University’s Institute of Health Economics said the sooner the list is completed, the quicker the government can begin assisting the victims.