‘Can’t remember anything after the explosion, later I found myself in hospital’

SM Kamal Hossain, 42, was going to a shop in the Wireless area of ​​Moghbazar in the capital when the blast took place on Sunday. He lost consciousness just after the blast when he was near Sharma House.

He is currently undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. After the explosion, he was hit by pieces of broken glass, and he fell onto the road. His right hand fractured after a car ran over it. He also sustained a severe head injury, said his relatives and doctors.

Kamal, who hails from Gafargaon, came to his father-in-law's house in Shahjahanpur in Dhaka. His wife Sanora Khan Shanu told The Business Standard (TBS) he had two mobile phones, Tk20,000 and a bag of emergency documents. The police returned the cheaper mobile phone only and Tk7,000 later.

Shanu was crying and fainting frequently saying, "We have been married for 10 years but have not had any children. How much I begged Allah for a child! We came to Dhaka to see a doctor but what a difficult situation Allah has put us into! The emptiness in our family would deepen."

At least seven people were killed and more than a hundred injured in the horrific explosion near the Wireless Gate in Moghbazar on Sunday evening.

Ruhul Amin Noman, 33, an official of a private company, is one of them. On Monday morning, his family was informed by the Ramna Police Station that they had found his body.

"Noman went to Jatrabari for some office work. From there he was on the bus or the sidewalk on his way back to the office in Moghbazar. His left side was damaged by the explosion," Noman's brother-in-law Mahfuzur Rahman told TBS.

Another victim was Imran Hossain, 25, a Bengal Meat salesman near the site of the blast, who sustained burn injury on 90% of the body. He was in the showroom at the time of the explosion. He is admitted to the ICU of Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

Imran's mother Liza Akhter told TBS when I saw my son I could not recognise his face because the whole body was burnt and cut with broken glasses.

"My son is in the agony of death. It is too intolerable to bear as a mother. Allah, heal my son quickly," the mother was lamenting.

Many other people including some pedestrians and those who were inside buses or other vehicles in the area during the accident also got injured.

Hridoy Mridha, 28, was on a bus at the time of the blast. His head, neck and several other parts of his body were cut by broken glass. While jumping from the bus, sustained around the one-and-a-half-inch cut in his abdomen. He is currently undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College.

"Our bus was stopped due to a traffic jam. There were about 35 passengers on the bus. At 7:35 pm, after a loud noise, I saw that everything was shaking. The windows of the bus were shattered. Everyone was bloodied before we realised what happened. A boy and a girl in my front seat died on the spot. I was rushed to the hospital in critical condition. I saw many injured in the hospital," said Hridoy, an undergraduate student at Barishal BM College and a private service holder in Dhaka.

At least seven people including a child were killed and more than 100 people were injured in an explosion that took place near Aarong Showroom in the Moghbazar Wireless Gate area in the capital on Sunday. 

Pieces of glass were falling on the ground like rain. It was later found the glass of at least ten buildings in the Wireless Gate area was broken. The ground floor of a building has become rubble. Three buildings have almost collapsed.

A five-member probe body, which has been formed to investigate the incident, is supposed to submit its report within seven working days.