INJURED PROTESTERS OF JULY: Weaponising health care to quell protest

Police detain an HSC examinee with a bullet injury at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on July 25, 2024.

by Mir Hojaifa Al Mamduh

During the tenure of the deposed Awami League government, key state institutions, including the health sector, were perceived to operate in alignment with the ruling party’s interests. The doctors’ association affiliated with the party reportedly held considerable influence over healthcare administration. After the fall of the Awami League regime, reports indicated delays, neglect, and in some cases, a complete lack of medical attention to injured protesters of the July mass uprising. Injured protesters’ encounter with the health system made it abundantly clear how the health system had turned into an instrument of state control and power.

In December 2024, the Drik Trust initiated research to understand the medical response to the police violence. A team of researchers led by anthropologist and professor of Jahangirnagar University, Mirza Taslima Sultana, conducted a study titled, ‘Response of the health sector to treating those injured in the July-August 2024 uprising.’ The research investigated the roles that doctors, healthcare personnel, hospitals, and treatment facilities — the healthcare sector as a whole — have played in responding to the crisis that emerged as a result of the government response to the uprising. The findings of the research will be made public in August 2025. The other members of the team included Aanica Zulfiquar, Tiasha Idrak, Mohammad Shojib, and Wasema Farzana. During our 3-month-long fieldwork, we conducted interviews with physicians, hospital administration, mortuary assistants, journalists, injured protesters, and members of the family of the martyrs of the July mass uprising. Drawing from my own experience as a protester and a member of the Drik research team, in this article, I write about how the government was trying to weaponise the healthcare system.

Denial of treatment

AMONG the injured protesters of the July mass uprising, some received no treatment at all, some were released from hospitals after partial treatment, and some received wrong treatments or were taken to the operating theatre without proper examinations.

On July 19, 2024, Raju (pseudonym) was shot in Dhaka’s Malibagh. A bullet from a long-range rifle struck Raju near his upper thigh, leaving only a tiny hole. When taken to the hospital, he was told it was a minor wound, nothing serious, and that treatment from a local pharmacy would suffice. At the pharmacy, he was advised to apply water to the area and warned that he might have difficulty urinating because there was an entry wound but no exit wound for the bullet. The bullet had torn a nerve near Raju’s genitals and lodged inside. That very night, Raju’s urination stopped. The following day, at a government hospital, he underwent surgery to drain his urine, but the bullet was not removed. He was told, ‘The doctors had to save his life; removing the bullet can wait three months.’ Raju remained hospitalised in that condition, receiving no further treatment. He would feel the bullet pressing against him when he sat, and his testicles swelled significantly. His treatment finally began after the fall of the Awami League regime, and he remained hospitalised for more than six months.

On August 5, Ismail (pseudonym) was shot in Gazipur. The bullet tore a blood vessel and cut a nerve in his leg. The doctor, after examining the wound, simply dressed it and said it would heal with regular dressings. Ismail continued the dressings, but it did not heal. One day, when he started bleeding, he went back to the doctor and learnt that his nerve and blood vessel were severed. The interim government later arranged for his treatment abroad.

Private hospitals also refused to treat the injured, denied admission, blocked gates, and cited that police would harm the well-being of the other patients or something of this sort. One injured person we interviewed said that when he went to a private hospital, he was told, ‘If we treat you, we will be in trouble.’

However, there were exceptions. We also found individuals who were satisfied with the treatment they received, even after being injured during the peak of the movement, when the end was not in sight. Many doctors risked their lives to serve those injured in the July uprising. In many hospitals, doctors operated on the injured all night long. Some even set up temporary camps in garages below their homes to treat the injured. Many doctors, by taking their own initiative to treat the injured, faced the wrath of the government.

Direct interference of the police

LAW enforcement agencies were trying to establish direct control over health facilities. The police checked ambulances on the roads, turning back injured people. They went to various hospitals, took names, addresses, and fingerprints of injured protesters, and sent the information to specific police stations so that the relevant station could arrest them upon their return from the hospital. On July 26, a bullet-injured college student, Md Shihab Hossain, was arrested and taken to remand for interrogation by the police. His access to treatment was cut short, and he was arrested at the entrance of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The same day, a group of plainclothesmen picked up three coordinators of the quota reform movement, including Nahid Islam, from the Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital. Such was the fear of arrest at the hospital gate that many injured individuals went to their ancestral villages at the time, thereby failing to receive treatment.

In July–August 2024, the police also went to both public and private hospitals, collected closed-circuit camera footage, and took records. Hospital staff were threatened that the authorities would bring a criminal case against them if they failed to comply. The UN Fact-Finding Report on the Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh also confirms the findings of our research. The report said, ‘DGFI, NSI, Detective Branch, and other agencies also obstructed medical care when they mounted extensive operations to keep hospitals under surveillance, identify patients with gunshot injuries, interrogate medical staff and injured patients, and fingerprint them… Medical staff were pressured not to treat injured protesters with the necessary care and not to provide medical documentation properly recording injuries and their causes (p. 42).’

Partisan doctors obstructing access to care

THE director of a government hospital in Dhaka questioned the role of doctors during the uprising. Regarding an attack by the Chhatra League at a government hospital in Dhaka, he said, ‘You wouldn’t recognise anything if you went to that hospital. Where is the orthopaedic ward? Where is the paediatric ward? But ruling party members attacked where the injured were; surely someone pointed them out.’ Besides, he mentioned by name several doctors wearing helmets who joined the Chhatra League to suppress the protesters. A state minister went to that hospital and forbade treatment.

In the past decade, hospitals were dominated by Awami League-leaning doctors. Consequently, when treating those injured in the July movement, they acted in a partisan manner. During our research, a doctor from a specialised hospital said that the ruling party’s organisation had absolute power within the hospital. Under pressure from ‘above,’ they hesitated in treating the injured, unsure how much treatment to provide and where to align themselves with the government’s agenda. The partisan control of the health sector is also demonstrated in the repeated manipulation of the forensic report of Abu Sayed. The head of the forensic department at the Rangpur Medical College and Hospital, Dr Rajibul Islam, told the media that state agencies intimidated him, so the cause of death of Abu Sayed is officially recorded as death from head injury and not from the lethal weapon used by the police.

The partisan control of the health sector did not suddenly become a reality during the July mass uprising. The government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the partisan bias. They hesitated to take preventive measures and enforce lockdown at the international airports because they had the grand plan to celebrate the birth centenary of their leader, Sheikh Mujibar Rahman. The controversies around importing Covid vaccines and approving Covid test kits produced by the Gonosasthya Kendra are other examples during the pandemic.

The fall of the Awami League regime did not immediately put an end to the politicisation of the health sector. For over a decade, the Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad (Awami League-leaning doctors’ organisation) dominated the sector. Now, the Doctors Association of Bangladesh (reportedly a Bangladesh Nationalist Party-leaning doctors’ organisation) and the National Doctors Forum (reportedly a Jamaat-e-Islami-leaning doctors’ organisation) are contesting each other to establish their dominance. As a doctor from a specialised medical institution in the country said, the best treatment will be received by those in power and their associates. Previously, Awami League MPs and ministers received it, and now BNP or Jamaat leaders receive it. Then, ruling political party activists, and then officials and employees will receive treatment. At last, it is the general public’s turn.

We want a state where citizens’ access to health care is not conditional on their loyalty to the ruling party. 

Mir Hojaifa Al Mamduh is a researcher.