Critically injured Akib’s condition improves, still not out of danger

Chittagong Medical College (CMC) student Md Mahadi Akib, who was under life-support after being severely injured in a clash between two Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) factions on Saturday, has regained consciousness.

However, he is still not out of danger, his father Golam Faruk Majumder told TBS.

He said, "Doctors visited him in the morning, and said that Akib has gained consciousness. His condition is improving but due to heavy injury to his head nothing can be said yet."

SM Noman Khaled Chowdhury, head of the neurosurgery department at the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), said that Akib's brain has been severely damaged due to external injury. His skull sustained a heavy blow, causing internal bleeding in the brain.

"In this condition, a part of the skull has been removed by surgery and for the time being, it has been placed under the skin of his abdomen to preserve it at body temperature," he said.

The procedure is called "decompressive craniectomy with the evacuation of epidural and subdural hematoma".

Akib, who hails from Burichang police station area of Cumilla, is in the second year of his MBBS programme in CMC.

Students said that around 11pm on Friday a clash broke out among two factions of BCL at the main residential hall of the medical college. Two students named Mahfuzul Haque, 23 and Naimul Islam, 20 were injured.

Following this incident, another clash ensued on Saturday morning.

Md Emon Sikder, a witness of the incident and also a BCL leader of CMC, told TBS that the opponents attacked Akib in front of the CMCH main gate at 9am on Saturday.

"Akib was bound by a rickshaw chain around his neck. He was hit with a glass bottle on the head. Later, his head was smashed with a hockey stick," he said.

Panchlaish Police Station Inspector Sadiqur Rahman told TBS that Akib's friends filed a case with the police station on Saturday night, against 16 identified and eight unidentified persons. A section of the BCL, led by fifth-year student Toufiqur Rahman, filed the case.

Two BCL activists named Raktim Dey, 21, and Enamul Hossain alias Shimanto, 21, were arrested in this connection on Saturday night. Both of them are second-year students of CMC, he added.

Meanwhile, the medical college was shut down on Saturday for an indefinite period following a series of clashes between two BCL factions on the campus. The students were ordered to leave the dormitory hall by Saturday evening.